During the broadcast of the UFC 286 tournament, representatives of the strongest league in the world officially announced that the former UFC middleweight champion, Anderson Silva, will be among the fighters who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in July, with the legendary Brazilian becoming a member of the so-called “Wing of Pioneers”. “, since his career started before the introduction of the Uniform MMA Rules.
“Anderson Silva is one of the greatest athletes of all time,” UFC President Dana White said in a statement. “Anderson’s 16-fight winning streak in the UFC, his 10 title defenses, and almost seven years as a champion have been some of the most remarkable things we’ve ever seen in professional sports. He was an absolute artist in the octagon and I would be honored to induct him into the UFC Hall of Fame this summer.”
Anderson Silva played in the UFC for fourteen years, remaining undefeated in the octagon for half of this period. During this time, “Spider” managed to win the UFC middleweight title, and make ten successful defenses of the championship belt. Currently, the 47-year-old Brazilian continues to hold the UFC record for the longest reign, which in his case lasted 2457 days, and rank second in the number of consecutive title defenses, second only to Demetrius Johnson in this indicator.
In October 2020, Anderson Silva suffered a third loss in a row in a confrontation with Uriah Hall, and announced his retirement from mixed martial arts.
After leaving the UFC, the Brazilian had four fights according to boxing rules, in the first of which he won a split decision against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., in the second he knocked out Tito Ortiz, in the third match no winner was announced due to the rules, despite the fact that the ex-champion UFC dominated his compatriot Bruno Machado for eight rounds, and in the last confrontation, Silva lost a unanimous decision to blogger Jake Paul.