How do you motivate when you are arguably the best UFC fighter that has ever lived? Well if you are Anderson Silva you motivate yourself with hopes of boxing one of pro boxing’s legends Roy Jones Jr. shortly after signing a 10-fight UFC contract.
[adinserter block=”1″]Anderson Silva is a funny guy. He is arguably the greatest fighter to ever step foot inside the octagon. Yet he has only felt the need to truly promote a fight maybe once in his entire UFC run. Silva spent a recent UFC 162 media call promoting a fight, just not the fight the UFC paid him to promote. Silva spent most of the call promoting a fantasy boxing match against Roy Jones.
This wasn’t any kind of revelation from Silva. Silva has said many times in the past that he wished to box Jones. The key word being the past as Silva has not brought the fight up in quite some time. In fact it was pretty much assumed that when he re-signed a 10-fight contract with the UFC, no such fight would ever take place.
Apparently The Spider never got the memo.
“Of course I want to fight Roy Jones Jr. Maybe after the fight against Weidman, regardless of the outcome, I’d like it to happen. He’s said he’d like it to happen also so I’d like that to happen.”
There’s a lot of possibilities of things that could happen. That’s a fight I have always wanted (Roy Jones). We’ll have to see what the next chapter is for Anderson Silva in the UFC.
“I feel his boxing style is something I’d like to test myself against. I’ve always been a fan of his and I’ve always wanted to test myself against Roy Jones.”
UFC president Dana White must have really been thrilled when Silva told the media that he may or may not fulfill the 10-fight deal he signed with the promotion.
“It’s going to come down to my willpower and my desire to still be fighting. I have a lot of things I want to do, a lot of desires and one of them is fighting Roy Jones. We’ll have to see how I feel.”
The call was surreal. Hearing Silva go on and on about fighting Jones was just ridiculous at a time when he is supposed to be promoting a fight against Chris Weidman. I just don’t get it. You would think that the UFC champion would want to do a little promotion after the success he had at promoting his last fight against Chael Sonnen.
This whole idea of a Silva vs. Jones boxing fight is one that just doesn’t make any sense to me. If Silva wants to test himself against a pro boxer, sure go for it. But why does he keep calling out a fighter that has been way past his prime for his years? Why doesn’t he call out Oscar de la Hoya while he is at it.
[adinserter block=”2″]Maybe just maybe Silva is playing the game here with the UFC. The UFC hasn’t been able to pull off any of the Silva super fights against either Georges St-Pierre or Jon Jones. Maybe Silva is using this as a negotiating ploy?
I hope so otherwise as he good as he is as fighting he may be the worst self-promoter in UFC history.
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Well now looks like Jones Jr will box Rampage Jackson. Didn't see that coming but I'd definitely watch it. Have to give the edge to Jones though, that's his life: boxing. Been doing it forever.