Anderson Silva wants a piece of Conor McGregor. Image: UFC.com
Conor McGregor is a wanted man.
Aside from drawing interests from the likes of boxing icon Floyd Mayweather on a potential crossover match, the reigning UFC lightweight champion has been called out by several MMA fighters who wish to take him on inside the octagon.
With his popularity at an all-time high, even former pound-for-pound great Anderson Silva wants in on the fray to test his skills against the Irish superstar.
“I’d like to test myself against Conor because he’s an interesting martial artist,” the Brazilian legend, who’s slated to clash against Derek Brunson at UFC 208, told MMAFighting.
Although Silva is considerably the bigger man between the two, both fighters possess similar lanky frames and have a penchant for picking opponents apart with their precision striking.
“His stand-up game is an intelligent game. Not because he’s champion now, but for the martial arts challenge. I’d like to see how these stand-up techniques, his and mine, would mix, and how that would go,” the longtime middleweight champion revealed.
“But not to fight for a belt or anything like that. For the challenge, an interest, that thing about knowing how a fight like this would go.”
Prior to McGregor’s rise above the UFC’s upper echelon, Silva wreaked havoc in the UFC’s 185-pound division and defended his belt 10 consecutive times, before eventually losing the title to Chris Weidman in 2013.
“The Spider” has hit tough times as of late, and lost four out of his last five bouts, with his lone win against Nick Diaz overturned after testing positive for performance enhancing drugs.
“The Notorious”, meanwhile, has become the third man in UFC history to win belts at two different weight classes, and is currently enjoying a break from fighting to aid his pregnant wife.
Although Silva currently has his sights set on his scheduled opponent Brunson, he claims he’s ready to shed a few pounds to battle McGregor at 170 pounds.
“I believe he can make 176, 178 pounds, right? That’s a weight I can get,” Silva said, referring to McGregor’s pair of welterweight matches against Nate Diaz. “We started this work and I got to 174, but we thought it would be better now to do these tests.” Khristian Ibarrola