Anderson Silva has claimed reports his sparring partner knocked him out were mistranslated ahead of his clash with Jake Paul.
The UFC legend will take to the boxing ring against YouTube star Paul this Saturday night in Arizona. Silva is now 47-years-old but has shown his skills during his stint in the boxing ring with victories over former world champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr and most recently Bruno Machado.
Silva has been stopped in the boxing ring once already in his career having been knocked down by Osmar Luiz Teixeira before retiring in his debut in 1998. And in a bold admission ahead of his upcoming contest, Silva revealed he was told to prepare for war with Paul after the brutal sparring sessions.
“I’m training hard for win. I’m training with the good boxers of a high-level, and five guys have come to help me,” Silva told MMA Weekly when discussing his preparations to face Paul. “And in the last sparring with my partner, he knocked me out two times, and when I finished the training, I talked to my coach and I said, ‘Coach, let me tell you something, why have the guys knocked me out two times?’ And the coach said, ‘You need [to] prepare for war, and you will prepare for war.’”
Silva has since released a statement clarifying the comments. He said: "After seeing the reports and concern for me, I'd like to clarify two important things. One, I was never knocked out in sparring. I misspoke in that interview as I sometimes do when interviewing in English and exaggerated the normal back-and-forth action that occurs in sparring.
'Secondly, this sparring session I referenced was in early September. The interview with MMA Weekly was done on Sept. 13 and, for some reason, just released this week. So, it wasn't recent. More importantly, my training camp has been great. I am fit and ready to fight and the only knockout people should be worried about is the one I'm about to deliver to Jake Paul on Saturday night.”
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This would have not been the the first time Silva has said he has been knocked out in training, having revealed the same thing ahead of a UFC bout with Nick Diaz in 2015 which was instead confirmed by UFC counterpart Khalil Rountree. Paul is hoping he can become the latest man to inflict a KO on Silva but has huge respect for the former UFC champion.
"Knockout of the year incoming," Paul said during footage that emerged online. "Yeah I've seen this a bunch of times and every time I see it I just find more openings. He loves to get in that corner and dance - I'm not going to play that s***, it's my ring, it's my fight, I'm the A-Side for a reason - he's not going to come in there and do that s***, I'm not going to feed into it."
