Anderson Silva will go down in combat sports history as one of the very best to compete inside the UFC octagon, but the former middleweight champion and UFC Hall of Famer did not find many successes in the second half of his storied career. As a result of a stretch of losses that dates back to 2013, UFC frontman Dana White commented on wishing to see “The Spider” hang up his gloves for good. According to White, those comments did not please his former star.
“Anderson Silva, a guy who was always a unique individual to deal with, but he lost like eight or nine in a row, something like that, and that guy won’t talk to me to this day because I said it’s over, and he was in his 40s,” White said in a Rolling Stone interview ahead of UFC Freedom 250. “His thing was, ‘Who are you to tell me that I’m done doing what I love to to do?’”
Silva lost seven of his last eight fights with the UFC before leaving in 2020. Between 2013 and 2020, Silva’s only Octagon win was a decision victory over Derek Brunson.
He would then move on to boxing where he would pick up victories over Tyron Woodley, Tito Ortiz, and Julio César Chávez Jr., but dropped a bout to Jake Paul. He also competed in two exhibition fights.
“Even guys that were really good, but it’s at the end, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s time for them to hang them up,’ and they get upset, and some of these guys never talk to me again,” White said.
