Bisping: ‘With the greatest of respect, Anderson Silva needs to retire’
Michael Bisping thinks it’s time for Anderson Silva to retire.
Prior to his co-headlining bout with Jared Cannonier at UFC 237, Anderson Silva’s manager, Jorge Guimaraes, said the former middleweight king was in the best shape of his life and, despite turning 44 last month, had no intention of retiring.
Following his first-round TKO loss to Cannonier, however, former opponent Michael Bisping thinks it’s time for ‘The Spider’ to hang up the gloves and call it a career.
“Anderson Silva is a true legend of the sport – he’s given so much,” Bisping said on the UFC 237 post-fight show on ESPN+ (transcript via MMAJunkie). “(He was) a longtime champion, but he’s 44 years old. A lot of people wondered, ‘Why is he still fighting?’ I think tonight, even though he looked OK, the fight obviously ended. He took a little inside leg kick and I think that he tore his ACL. I don’t think we’ll ever see Anderson Silva fight again. He certainly doesn’t need to.”
Bisping, who beat Silva in a Fight of the Night epic back in 2016, believes ‘father time’ has finally caught up with the MMA legend.
“Father Time has caught up (with him),” Bisping said. “With the greatest of respect, Anderson Silva needs to retire. He’s already given so much to this sport. He doesn’t need to give anymore. Enjoy retirement.”
Silva is 1-4 in his last five bouts inside the Octagon and the Brazilian hasn’t won more than two fights in a row since his epic title reign from 2006-2012.
As for Bisping, the former UFC middleweight champion retired from MMA shortly after his knockout loss to Kelvin Gastelum at UFC Shanghai.