LAS VEGAS – MMA legend and now UFC Hall of Famer Wanderlei Silva is content with his combat sports career, but he would get back into the ring to settle the score with a couple of select opponents.
Silva, 48, has been one half of a number of historic rivalries, but two in particular stand out for him that could still produce another fight if the other sides agree to throw down again. In fact, Silva would like to mix it up in the boxing ring with his final two MMA opponents, Chael Sonnen and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.
“I would love to actually have a show with Chael Sonnen,” Silva told MMA Junkie Radio through an interpreter on radio row at UFC X. “But with me, it wouldn’t be a show. I would get in there to knock him out.”
“The Axe Murderer” may have buried the hatchet with Sonnen after their infamous brawl on the set of “The Ultimate Fighter” in Brazil, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t like to get one back on his once-bitter rival. In Silva’s penultimate MMA fight, he lost a unanimous decision to Sonnen under the Bellator banner in June 2017.
Add “Rampage” Jackson to that list of fights Silva wouldn’t mind getting back, although their history runs much deeper.
Silva first faced and finished “Rampage” in 2003 in Pride. The same outcome occurred in their rematch a year later. Four years down the road, the rivalry was rekindled at UFC 92, where Jackson got his revenge with a brutal knockout. Ten years later, “Rampage” evened the rivalry’s score by stopping Silva again at Bellator 206, which was the last time Silva competed.
If it were up to Silva, he would get the chance to break the tie with Jackson in the boxing ring.
“It’s a really interesting match,” Silva said. “I won two, I lost two. I think we need to have the fifth fight.”
Sonnen, 47, is coming off a draw in an exhibition boxing bout against Anderson Silva in Brazil last month. Jackson, 46, has not competed since a knockout loss to Fedor Emelianenko at Bellator 237 in 2019, but has recently been looking to box against Shannon Briggs.
