Anderson Silva fully expects to return to the Octagon next year after he’s served his 12 month steroid suspension and it seems he already has an opponent, date and location in mind for the occasion.
“I think I fight in Curitiba, in April, on the same card Fabricio Werdum fights Cain Velasquez,” Silva told Combate in his native Brazil. “I think my opponent will be Michael Bisping, I can’t remember very well, I think it’s him.”
The news seems a little premature given that Bisping still has a fight against former TUF: The Smashes winner Robert Whittaker at UFC 193 in November first, and indeed the Brit claims he was unaware that he might be facing the former long-time champion next year, although he’s not against to the idea.
“First I’ve heard [of this],” Bisping wrote on Twitter. “Just leave the Viagra out of it and I’m in.”
After Silva’s infamous leg-break in his second fight with Chris Weidman back in late 2013, ‘The Spider’ returned a little over a year later against Nick Diaz in January of this year.
He emerged victorious by unanimous decision, but it then emerged that he’d tested positive for two banned steroids which would eventually lead to the fight being amended to a no-contest and him being suspended for a year.
As a result Silva’s remarkable legacy as one of the greatest fighters the sport has ever seen has now been tainted, though it seems that the final chapter in the 40 year old’s story has yet to be written.
