The biggest question in UFC right now is who Conor McGregor will fight next.
He took down Nate Diaz in a rematch at UFC 202, and then knocked out Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 in New York City—so who could he match up with for his next bout?
How about MMA legend Anderson Silva?
The former middleweight champion will be fighting Derek Brunson at UFC 208, but he may have his eyes set on an even bigger fight down the line. “Now that I’m old, I’m beginning to challenge everyone,” Silva said in a Portuguese-language interview with Globo in Brazil (translated via Google Translate). “I want to beat this dwarf … what’s the boy’s name again?
McGregor. It is not provocation. It’s just that I forget, I’m old. Old men know what it’s like. I have this urge to test myself against him. I think he’s a guy who has an unusual ability. I do not know if he would reach a weight of 178 pounds, which is the weight I can get to, but it’s a guy I’d like to test myself before I end my career.”
Even though Silva is 41, he sounds pretty confident that he would hold his own against the 28-year-old McGregor. “The Notorious” has been going back and forth in social media with boxer Floyd Mayweather about a potential bout—even UFC president Dana White has gotten involved—but that’s looking very unlikely at this point.
A Silva-McGregor matchup looks pretty unlikely too, of course, but that would be a helluva fight—and at least it’s Silva, who has achieved some of the best knockouts in UFC history. The legend against the sport’s biggest star right now? Who wouldn’t want to see that? And if Silva wins his bout at UFC 208, who knows what could happen.
