Anderson Silva admits his career-ending UFC bout with Uriah Hall was a mistake after making his transition into the world of boxing.
The legendary former middleweight champion was never able to reclaim his winning aura after suffering a broken leg in his rematch with Chris Weidman in 2013. Silva spent the final few years of his career inside the MMA cage struggling to get back to a consistent run of results before eventually being let go by the company in 2020.
The last bout in his iconic MMA career was his loss to Hall in front of no fans in October 2020, which compounded a three-fight losing streak and put his fighting future in jeopardy at the age of 45. However, he opted to return to boxing last year, landing victory over former world champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr as well as a quick-fire knockout of ex-UFC champion Tito Ortiz.
"In the time when I fought Uriah Hall, the last mistake I made in my life was doing it with that team," Silva explained on the Full Send Podcast. "I put good and bad people together in that camp, but in my mind I had gone to try to help my friends and that's a big mistake, because I didn't train correct.
"I tried to intermediate the dramas in the training camp, but that's no excuse. Uriah was better than me at the time, it's crazy because the energy involved in the fight was completely different. With the covid and everything, it was a brand new one for me at the time, everything was brand new."
Silva recalls getting his wires crossed when questions were put to him about UFC president Dana White telling him he couldn't continue fighting. Silva was finished with the promotion, but as evidenced by his later career moves, was still very keen to compete again in different promotions and sports.
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"I thought 'wow, that's tough'," he explained. "But when the fight was over I couldn't walk because I broke my nose and I was a little and I was a little busy. The people in front of me were doing an interview and I saw the chairs and I thought 'I can sit down for that'. I got knocked out so I can sit down!
"I started talking with the people but everything was crazy. I remember that I didn't talk bad about Dana White, but I did go and talk about specifically the moment and Uriah Hall. I'm sitting down and I talk to everybody, do the interview, and people ask me 'Dana said this is your last fight and you can't fight in UFC any more'.
"I said, 'Yes I'm not fighting in UFC any more but I'm not done. I just finished with UFC but I will continue to fight, for sure. That was in the moment, and then I said 'nobody can say for another man when the guy needs to stop, you need to find that inside your heart."
