With Ultimate Fighting Championship or the UFC’s former Middleweight and Light Heavyweight Championship contender penciled in to take on the former UFC Light Heavyweight champion Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua later in the year, the chances of legendary Brazilian Wanderlei Silva being able to lay his hands on him are next to none. However, if one assumes that The Axe Murderer will be walking away from that fight just because it isn’t a reality at least in August, then they couldn’t be any farther from the truth.
Speaking to a local Mixed Martial Arts outlet in Brazil, the legendary fighter stated that he is targeting a grudge match against the self proclaimed American Gangster in December and that too, in his own backyard and in front of his home fans in Brazil. According to Wanderlei Silva he will definitely not be fighting in Boston at the TD Garden when UFC on Fox Sports 1 takes place. He admitted that no one from the UFC called to offer him the fight.
However, The Axe Murderer feels that it is one fight that he is looking forward to the most and if it happens, it will happen after the pay per view at Boston, and not before or at the event. The former superstar from PRIDE also stated that he would like some time off after he packed up The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil and also beat Brian Stann at UFC on FOX 8 earlier in the year.
Sonnen suffered two devastating losses in the last one year, first to Anderson Silva for the UFC Middleweight Championship and was then decimated by Jon Jones in a UFC Light Heavyweight Championship match. But that didn’t stop him from calling out Wanderlei Silva and now that the Brazilian has accepted, the American can only pray for something to derail the match.
Ultimate Fighting Championship or the UFC fighter Tom Watson is still interested in taking on the legendary UFC fighter Wanderlei Silva and the British fighter believes that if he may be tried some more tactics in calling out the Brazilian, may be use some more anger, then it would only be a matter of time before the legendary fighter replied to his call outs and accepted a match against him.
Speaking to MMA Junkie, the Briton stated that on his part, he can go online and call out Wanderlei stating that he is an absolute legend in the sport and ask for the opportunity to fight him, but nobody would even notice that. Rather if he called him out stating that he might be a legend but he hasn’t faced anyone like him, and he would teach him a thing or two about knocking the opposition out, then maybe it would get noticed.
Wanderlei Silva, who returned to the UFC Octagon after a year long hiatus, defeated the former marine Brian Stann in a UFC event in Japan via technical knockout in just the second round. His performance on the night earned him the Fight of the Night as well as the Knockout of the Night gongs from the promotion as well.
With the Brazilian still having a few fights left on his contract, there is every chance that the match between him and Watson might take place. But it all depends on UFC matchmaker Joe Silva.
Tom Watson beat Stanislav Nedkov in his last fight in February to take his professional record up to 16-5. Both Wanderlei Silva and Tom Watson do not have any opponent scheduled for their next fight or even a timeline for the next bout and this match could easily become a reality if Watson pushed hard.
When one becomes a legend in a sport such as Mixed Martial Arts, they have to deal with a lot of up and coming fighters calling them out as they try to make a big splash in the sport. And it is no different for Wanderlei Silva, who many of the younger generation of the Ultimate Fighting Championship or the UFC grew up idolizing. Now, they all want a crack at the legendary Brazilian fighter because a win against him would strengthen their position in the promotion.
And the latest youngster who has called out the Brazilian is Brad Tavares. Speaking to a local media outlet, the youngster stated that he wants a fight against Silva. He went on to state that he wants to fight against the Brazilian because stylistically, it would be one of the greatest fights and would make a lot of sense. He stated that he has been coming up the ranks of the UFC over the last couple of years and for him to be able to fight someone like Wanderlei Silva would be absolutely brilliant.
He stated that The Axe Murderer is someone he looked up to as a youngster and he really hopes he will be given the opportunity to fight him at some point. He added that with the Brazilian being his favorite fighter since he was a kid, he wants to get the opportunity of sparring against someone he grew up idolizing.
But in all probability, Brad Tavares will have to be disappointed because Wanderlei Silva is at a stage in his career where he wouldn’t want any up and comer as his opponent but would prefer a big name. having defeated Brian Stann a few days back, he is in line to face someone ranked much higher than the youngster.
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