UFC great Anderson Silva has refuted allegations that he took a dive during his matchup with Jake Paul.
Silva was defeated by boxer-turned-YouTube star Paul through unanimous decision last October in Arizona. The final round saw Paul attack Silva with an amazing four-punch combination, which was the event’s highlight.
After one view revealed Paul’s glove did not fall cleanly on Silva’s chin, fans immediately questioned if the blow that sent Silva to the ground had landed.
In response to the accusations, Paul both said he has “lost faith in his generation.” Silva also denied intentionally dropping to the canvas.
He said to TMZ:
“The people don’t understand the fight game and they think ‘oh Anderson is doing something behind the scenes with Jake’ but it’s not. Jake won the fight, I don’t feel disrespected [by the fix claims] because I continued my legacy. It doesn’t matter what people are talking about.”
Silva believes Paul doesn’t get the recognition he deserves for devoting his life to boxing. He added:
“Jake is a very young guy, he’s very determined and training hard every day. The people don’t give credit to him. Jake, continue to do your job, bro. You’re doing amazing. I love you!”
While acknowledging that he made a number of blunders during the battle, Silva is trying to look at the bright side of his defeat against Paul. He said:
“I have a lot of experience and I made a lot of failures in the fight. I didn’t have the strategy correct and I lost the fight and that’s amazing because I continue to learn, continue to accept the new technique with my coach, and that’s great.”
With regard to his next boxing match, Silva remarked,
“I’m just waiting for the next opportunity and situation. I have a match in Dubai with gi and no-gi so I’ll go and do that first. I have my business in Brazil and I have my business here [in America] so after that, we’ll see. I have two more fights in my life. Maybe a rematch [with Paul] in the future.”