Anderson Silva’s Son Wants Him To Retire From Fighting After Broken Leg
There’s been a mixed bag of opinions in the massive fallout surrounding former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva’s gruesome broken leg at last Saturday’s UFC 168. Some want to the champ to heal up and get back in the cage, while others want him to step down to avoid further injury.
When the champ went immediate surgery that was deemed a rousing success by his doctor Steven Sanders, Silva was heard asking when he could resume training. He was given a time frame of six to nine months for his tibia and fibula to heal properly, but that doesn’t take into account the full time needed to get back into truly top-level fighting shape.
Silva is understandably sad and disappointed about the outcome of his pivotal title rematch with Chris Weidman, apologizing profusely to his home country of Brazil for the loss. “The Spider” tweeted that he wants to heal up with his family before making any definitive decisions on his fighting future:
Thank you to all my fans and friends, I’will be better soon, now I need to be with my family to recovering better.. pic.twitter.com/RfD95fM2UR
— Anderson Silva (@SpiderAnderson) December 30, 2013
Hopefully his wife and kids will help aid the legend to a quick recovery, but at least one of his family members reportedly doesn’t want to see his father return to the Octagon. Silva’s 15-year-old son Kalyl spoke up to Brazilian media source R7 Esportes to detail his feelings about his father’s debilitating injury (translated from Portuguese via MMAFighting.com):
“All respect for Chris to go out there and fight like a champion. Congratulations, Chris. It’s your turn to be a legend. All the enemies are celebrating Silva and do not come to see me, is not my fault. But I want to see you do what he does. I hope he retires and go home because I’m tired of watching my father train every day, be gone for two or three months … and a broken leg happens … And as always you are my champion father. And once again, good job Chris.”
The young man has high praise for Silva’s foe Weidman, who retained the belt in shocking yet unsatisfying fashion. Nothing can be taken from the “All-American,” as he was dominating the fight to that point, but winning due to Silva’s broken leg is about as anticlimactic as it gets.
Because of that, there are still doubts that will always linger about their rivalry. However a third fight seems like a distant possibility at best right now.
If Silva’s son had his choice, his father would step off into the sunset and stop putting his body at risk for fighting. However, something tells me that that Silva’s pride won’t let him walk away just yet, and with his doctors saying a return is possible, we may see “The Spider” back in the cage much sooner than we first imagined.
Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea for USA TODAY Sports
