Anderson Silva Talks Machida & Jacare: I’m Very, Very Disappointed

With only nine days remaining until his highly anticipated return bout against Nick Diaz in the main event of January 31’s UFC 183 from Las Vegas, decorated longtime UFC middleweight champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva will be back in the MMA spotlight after almost 13 months out of action due to a gruesome broken leg suffered in his UFC 168 rematch with current champ Chris Weidman.

“The Spider” was spotted speaking at a UFC 183 media conference call today (Thurs., January 22, 2015) and somewhat surprisingly, the decorated former champ chose to focus on his relationship with supposedly close friends and fellow middleweights Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza.

With the perception being that he would never fight his former teammates and friends, “The Spider” isn’t exactly proud of Machida and Souza’s supposed willingness to fight him (via MMA Fighting):

“Jacare is my friend, Lyoto is my friend. But all the time, [those] guys don’t talk the same as me,” Silva said on a Thursday conference call. “When I go to talk to people for media, I say, ‘I no go fight Lyoto because he’s my friend, I no go fight Jacare because he’s my friend.’

But when those guys go and talk to the media, Lyoto says, ‘I go fight Anderson because I go fight.’ Jacare says, ‘I go fight because I go fight, because I’m a fighter.’ But my opinion, I don’t like the positions that Lyoto and Jacare (are taking), because I don’t go fight these guys. Because I’m training with Lyoto for a long time, sometimes I train with Jacare.

When I go train with guys, I go to help you. … I put 50-percent of my energy into helping the guys. When the guys talk like this, I’m very, very, very disappointed.”

Silva takes a sort of interesting stance in his words, because not all that long ago, he said that he would indeed be willing to fight either Machida or Jacare if the title were on the line.

But if Silva is victorious over Diaz at UFC 183, he’ll leapfrog both of his former teammates for a reported title shot at the winner of UFC 184’s blockbuster Weidman vs. Belfort main event.

And apparently he’d be forced into fighting one of them if that’s what the UFC insisted upon:

“I work for UFC, so I’m part of the UFC family,” Silva said. “So if Dana decides that I go and fight, I go home and prepare for a fight. If Dana gives me the chance for the belt, I go fight for the belt. But I don’t like to fight Brazilian guys.”

Does “The Spider” have a legitimate reason to be angry at Machida and Souza, or is it yet another classic play on words from the sometimes-deceptive former champ?