Former UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva will be facing Derek Brunson this Saturday Night at UFC 208.
Silva, who’s the longest reigning middleweight champion in UFC history, just wants to entertain the fans this weekend.
“What really motivates me to train is to be able to do what I love to do,” Silva said to MMA Junkie. “Even though I’m aging and all that, I’m still motivated to go out there and continue to do what I love to do (entertain the fans). My focus right now is totally on this next fight, and this next challenge. After that, we’ll see. We’ll see what the UFC wants, and I have my own personal things going on that I like to do, and we’ll just have to see. Right now, I’m totally focused on the next challenge. I want to win this fight, for sure.”
Silva is coming off of a one fight stint at light heavyweight, where he suffered a decision loss to UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier in a non-title fight at UFC 200. Silva also knows that he’s closer to the end of his career than he is to the beginning, but isn't not worried about how his career will be ending.
“I don’t worry about following into that same path,” Silva said. “Really, you can’t erase anything that B.J. has done in this sport, and I have a lot of affection for him. I really like him as a fighter, but to each their own. Everyone has their own story, and that’s B.J., but I respect him a lot. I really don’t think there’s no such thing as a perfect ending. Really, you can’t erase history. What I’ve done, what B.J. Penn, Dan Henderson, Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock, ‘Tank’ Abbott, Pedro Rizzo, Marco Ruas, Andre Pederneiras and many others, all those things that everyone has done, you can’t erase that. Even through a loss or a win, it doesn’t change history. It doesn’t change what’s already been done and through these generations of fighters that have been coming up, it’s all part of history, what these guys have done.”
UFC 208 takes place on Saturday, February 8 from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York with Holly Holm and Germaine De Randamie headlining.
