Anderson Silva’s Goal For Return: Make His Fans Happy

‘The Spider’ is back.

Anderson Silva is set to make his Octagon return this weekend (Sat. February 11, 2017) against Derek Brunson in the co-main event of UFC 208 from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Silva will look to win his first Octagon battle since his 2012 knockout over Stephan Bonnar after his unanimous decision win over Nick Diaz  in early 2015 was overturned. Silva’s lost Octagon outing saw him suffer a unanimous decision loss to Daniel Cormier at 205 pounds after replacing Jon Jones at July 2016’s UFC 200 on only three days’ notice.

After already having ruled as the UFC’s 185-pound champion and holding the record for most consecutive title defenses in promotion history, Silva’s only focus now is keeping his fans happy (quotes via MMA Junkie):

“Actually, at UFC 200, much like this time, I made myself available for the UFC, and they called me up,” Silva said. “This is a real partnership. There’s a lot of give and take on both parts, and we all just reach a consensus, and really our main goal is to go out there and make the fans happy.

“My goal right now is to go out there and win this fight and have a good fight, but it’s a good partnership. I think that’s part of the show. I’m really happy to be back fighting in my own division and to have enough time to train for it. I’m just very happy.”

Silva won’t be the only legend making his return to the Octagon this year, as former UFC lightweight and welterweight champion BJ Penn made his highly anticipated return to fighting action. Penn suffered a grizzly second round knockout loss to young challenger Yair Rodriguez, but ‘The Spider’ isn’t fearful of suffering the same fate:

“I don’t worry about following into that same path,” Silva said. “Really, you can’t erase anything that B.J. has done in this sport, and I have a lot of affection for him. I really like him as a fighter, but to each their own. Everyone has their own story, and that’s B.J., but I respect him a lot.

“I really don’t think there’s no such thing as a perfect ending. Really, you can’t erase history. What I’ve done, what B.J. Penn, Dan Henderson, Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock, ‘Tank’ Abbott, Pedro Rizzo, Marco Ruas, Andre Pederneiras and many others, all those things that everyone has done, you can’t erase that. Even through a loss or a win, it doesn’t change history. It doesn’t change what’s already been done and through these generations of fighters that have been coming up, it’s all part of history, what these guys have done.”

How do you see Silva’s bout against Brunson going down?