Anderson Silva Willing To Cut Down To Fight Conor McGregor
Former longtime UFC middleweight champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva is set to return to action against Derek Brunson at Feb. 11’s UFC 208 from Brooklyn, New York, but he recently made headlines when he expressed interest in fighting reigning lightweight champion Conor McGregor.
In a recent interview with MMAFighting.com, Silva explained why he wants to share the Octagon with the “Notorious” one, also saying that he’d be willing to cut down in weight to meet McGregor:
“I’d like to test myself against Conor because he’s an interesting martial artist,” Silva said. “His stand-up game is an intelligent game. Not because he’s champion now, but for the martial arts challenge. I’d like to see how these stand-up techniques, his and mine, would mix, and how that would go. But not to fight for a belt or anything like that. For the challenge, an interest, that thing about knowing how a fight like this would go. I believe he can make 176, 178 pounds, right? That’s a weight I can get. We started this work and I got to 174, but we thought it would be better now to do these tests.”
McGregor, who has previously held the UFC’s 145-pound title, fought twice at 170-pounds last year, but will likely remain at lightweight for the foreseeable future.
Silva, on the other hand, has been a middleweight for the majority of his career, but he has fought at light heavyweight multiple times. Although he says he could cut down, he would certainly be the much larger fighter as opposed to McGregor.
It’s hard to see a bout between Silva and McGregor coming to fruition, but is it a bout you’d like to see?
