Thompson: Silva beating Adesanya would ‘put a smile on my face’
Stephen Thompson is rooting for Anderson Silva at UFC 234, but he believes Israel Adesanya is too big a threat for the Brazilian legend.
If Stephen Thompson has it his way, Anderson Silva will turn back the clock against the impending force Israel Adesanya. That does not mean, however, “Wonderboy” thinks Silva will have his hand raised at UFC 234.
“I think Israel’s going to go out there and school him. I mean, it would be cool — I think it would be very cool to see Anderson, him being the veteran, go out there and just finish him,” Thompson said of the UFC 234 co-main event, on Monday’s The MMA Hour. “That would definitely put a smile on my face, but I don’t see it happening.”
“I mean, from watching Anderson Silva’s last few fights, he just wasn’t the same. I think whenever he broke his leg, when he fought [Chris] Weidman, it took a lot out of him,” Thompson continued. “I think he was out for a very long time, and he just doesn’t, I don’t know — I don’t know if he doesn’t have that drive or that timing like he used to have. He just felt very slow and just didn’t have that timing like he used to.”
Thompson, 35, has trained with Silva in the past. What he sees now is a different fighter than the mythical “Spider” that conquered UFC’s middleweight division of old. “This was before I was in the UFC,” he noted. “I spent a few weeks up there training with Anderson, which was a dream come true for me.
“From sparring with him and seeing him then, and to see him his last few fights with [Michael] Bisping and I forgot who else it was, it’s just, there is a difference,” the two-time UFC welterweight title challenge examined. “There is a big difference.”
UFC 234 takes place in Melbourne, Australia on Sunday, Feb. 10. The card is headlined by a UFC middleweight championship clash between hometown hero Robert Whittaker, and top challenger Kelvin Gastelum. Silva and Adesanya meet in a co-main event bout which should determine the next middleweight title challenger.