Anderson “The Spider” Silva was recently spotted at UFC 179, and after being pointed out in the crowd and given an enormous ovation, the former longtime middleweight champion spoke with Ariel Helwani. Here are some highlights of that interview.
Anderson got a little emotional at the reaction of the fans, and he’s excited to be back in front of crowds again. He’s been asked a lot about when he’s returning, when he’ll be fighting for the belt again (Apparently Brazilian MMA fans don’t pay a whole lot of attention to fight announcements).
Silva now says he wants to fight for the belt again, but is respecting Vitor Belfort’s title shot, and presumably, the next challenger, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza’s opportunity, who trains with Silva and Lyoto Machida at Black House.
Anderson explicitly denies ever being “the king” while champion, he’s just Anderson, he’s a normal guy. As for the state of Brazilian MMA, with only one UFC champion, Anderson believes that the rest of the world has been training hard and it’s just the evolution of MMA.
Silva believes that Dana White and Nick Diaz came up with the idea to put that fight together, but he feels that it is a great idea. There’s also a chance that Anderson and Georges St. Pierre finally have their long-talked about super-fight if Silva beats Diaz. Anderson respects GSP and wishes him luck in his comeback.
