The former UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva said Wednesday that he had “misspoked” in an interview discussing Saturday’s boxing match with Jake Paul. The video was taken one month ago and Anderson was not “NEVER” knocked unconscious by his sparring partner.
“After seeing the reports and concern for me, I’d like to clarify two important things,” Silva wrote in a prepared statement sent by Showtime, the pay-per-view broadcaster of his boxing match Saturday in Glendale, Ariz. “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.”
In his fifth bout, Paul faces Silva in the main event at the Desert Diamond Arena’s boxing competition. He said that he had been knocked out twice by a sparring partner in his fifth boxing match during an interview with MMA Weekly.
” I spoke to my coach, and even asked, “Coach, can you tell me something? Why did the men knock me out twice?” Silva explained to the outlet. The coach replied, “You must prepare for war, and you prepare .'”
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Silva’s longtime coach, Luiz Carlos Dorea, in a statement to MMA Fighting emphatically denied the ex-UFC champ had been knocked out, saying it “never happened.” The Arizona Gaming Department, which regulates the event, said it was looking into the matter.
Silva stated that all is well in training, and that he plans to finish Paul Saturday.
“More importantly, my training camp has been great,” he wrote. “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.”
