Anderson Silva has been making a remarkable recovery from the broken leg he suffered against Chris Weidman at UFC 168 last December, but talk of him being ready to fight again later this year appears to be premature.
UFC president Dana White has mentioned several times recently that the former UFC middleweight champion could be ready to return to the Octagon by the end of the year, but Silva himself has now ruled that possibility out.
“These rumors that I’ll fight at UFC 181 or any other event around that date aren’t true,” Silva said in a new interview with Combate in his native Brazil. “This year is over for me.
However, the good news is that he did leave the door open for his return next year.
“There’s a chance I’ll fight in the first half of 2015,” he confirmed.
Honestly, this seems like a good decision from Silva. While his early recovery appears to have exceeded expectations, enabling him to already begin very light training, it’s clear that he’s still got a very long road to recovery ahead of him. Trying to rush that process would seem like a bad idea.
In fact, it seems that Silva is lowering his sights in a number of different other ways too. He’s now dismissing talk of fighting for the title again and has acknowledged that there’s a good chance he won’t be able to fulfill the 10-fight deal he signed last year.
Nevertheless, it seems he does still have an appetite to compete again despite his horrific injury.
“My family has been asking me for years to stop fighting, and they need to understand that this is what I love to do and that I need to have my time. My goal in the sport was to become a reference in this sport, and I’m achieving this.”
