Contrary to ongoing reports, Chris Weidman is not set to fight Anderson Silva in a boxing match.
Rumors emerged that Weidman would be lacing up the gloves against fellow former UFC middleweight champion Silva, but Weidman dismissed talk of a third fight happening.
Weidman, who announced his retirement from MMA this past January, explained how those rumors might have spread.
“No (it’s not true),” Weidman told MMA Junkie. “I’m giving you all the news right now. A couple years ago, I got hit up by Anderson Silva’s manager about doing a boxing match with him, and it was good money and everything, but I was in the UFC and I’m like, ‘I can’t do that.’ He was like, ‘OK, let me know when you’re done.’ That was always something I figured after I’m done maybe a boxing match here and there with some big names, make some good money. It would be fun. People would love to see me go against Anderson Silva again. His fans could see if he could get a win back on me and knock me out in boxing. That’s more his thing, so why not? But that being said, no. I know where it came from because my manager did some research and found out.
“When I went to a national wrestling tournament in Atlanta with my kids the other weekend, I’m talking to a million people, taking pictures, and somebody must have asked me, and I must have said this a few times in the last six months after I retired, ‘What would you want to do next?’ I’m like, ‘I’m doing the analyst stuff, I’m done fighting. I don’t think MMA is going to pay me enough money to come back and go through a training camp and getting my head jacked up.’ I’m trying to save my brain cells. But a boxing match against some big names, some older dudes and guys like Anderson Silva, Luke Rockhold, Darren Till, guys I’ve had history with, that would be fun. I’d entertain it for good money. So someone ran with the Anderson Silva thing and just said I said it’s set. I didn’t say it’s set. There’s not talks. There’s no dates set. I was just going to let them run with it cause maybe it ends up happening. But no, there’s no talks that I know of.”
Weidman was the one to put an end to Silva’s legendary run in the UFC middleweight division when he scored an upset knockout to claim the title at UFC 162. He then won their immediate rematch at UFC 168 by TKO due to injury when Silva brutally snapped his leg in Round 2.
Could their be a trilogy in the ring? Weidman didn’t dismiss that possibility.
“I would be open to discussing that,” Weidman said. “For good money, boxing Anderson Silva? I’ve got a lot of respect for him, and we’ve got a lot of history and if it’s a fight people see, it would be fun. Let’s do it. Why not?”
