New developments could affect Anderson Silva’s boxing bout with social media superstar Jake Paul scheduled for this Saturday, October 29. Following the release of an interview recorded with Silva back in September, the Arizona Boxing Commission is putting statements made by Silva regarding his health under review.
During the interview with MMA Weekly, Silva described being knocked out twice by training partners while sparing during his camp. “I’m training hard for win—I’m training with the good boxers, high-level, and five guys come to help me,” Silva enthused. “And the last sparring with [my sparring partner], he is knocked me out two times, and when I finish my training, I talked to my coach and even said, ‘Coach, let me tell you something, why the guys knock me out two times?’ And the coach said, ‘You need to prepare for war, and you prepare for war.’”
Despite this statement, Silva’s longtime coach Luiz Carlos Dorea quickly denied the event in an interview with MMA Fighting.
“What I can say is that didn’t happen,” Dorea said. “Thank God we follow all the steps in training and Anderson did excellent sparring [sessions]. He’s 100 percent for the fight.”
The following saw Silva, 47, publicly walk back his story with a prepared statement published by MMA Fighting yesterday.
“After seeing the reports and concern for me, I’d like to clarify two important things,” Silva wrote. “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. Second, 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.”
Unfortunately this did not calm the commission’s concerns, which called for an emergency meeting scheduled this evening, October 27. According to MMA Fighting, the commission will meet for, “the review of additional documentation submitted by (Silva) to determine his eligibility to compete in an upcoming bout on October 29, 2022.”
A copy of the meeting schedule is featured below.
Currently, the fight is still scheduled for 9 pm, EST at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Ariz.
This story is developing, and Bloody Elbow will publish updates when available.
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