FanHouse EdSoares

If Anderson Silva beats Thales Leites on Saturday night at UFC 97, he'll set a new UFC record for the most consecutive wins, with nine. But as impressive as that is, Silva's manager says there's more to it than that.

In an interview with MMA Weekly, manager Ed Soares defended Silva's most recent performance, a third-round TKO win over Patrick Cote, and pointed out that Silva's 8-0 UFC record consists of eight wins in which he stopped his opponents before the fight had even reached its halfway point.

Will UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva ever box Roy Jones? I don't much like the idea, but it's clear that both fighters are intrigued by the possibility.

Will Roy Jones (right) ever meet UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva in the boxing ring? I don't much like the idea, but it's clear that both fighters are intrigued by the possibility.

Silva's manager, Ed Soares, said on a conference call this week to promote Silva's April 18 fight with Thales Leites at UFC 97 that while Silva is committed to mixed martial arts, he also dreams about giving boxing a try.

During the last year, UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva has been the subject of a great deal of retirement speculation, with some fans concerned that the UFC's most dominant champ could walk away. But Silva's manager says he doesn't think Silva is leaving MMA any time soon.

UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva and his manager, Ed Soares, are so sick and tired of questions about whether he'll retire from mixed martial arts and take up boxing that the usually media-friendly Soares has stopped even translating the questions and now just gives the answer himself:



When a reporter asked Silva if he only had six more fights left in the UFC and if he would move on to boxing, Soares answered for Silva, rather than translating to Portuguese, as he usually does.

The possibility that the retirement of UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva is imminent has a lot of mixed martial arts fans talking, and today Silva's manager, Ed Soares, talked a little about it as well.

"Even before Anderson came into the UFC, his goal has always been to retire by the age of 35," Soares said on a call to promote Silva's fight with Patrick Cote at UFC 90. "He's talking about that much sooner than any of us would like, but his goal is to retire when he's 35."

Soares also confirmed that after taking on Cote next weekend, Silva will have five more fights remaining on his current deal. But he left open the possibility that Silva (who turns 35 on April 14, 2010) might want to fight a few more times beyond age 35.

I wrote over the weekend that despite the retirement talk attributed to UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, I don't really think he's close to retiring. Now his manager, Ed Soares, has confirmed that Silva still has six more fights in the UFC.

Posting under the name ed sinister at mixedmartialarts.com, Soares writes:

Anderson's goal is to retire when he is 35. He still has 6 fights on his contract and he doesn't turn 35 for another 18 months. I know he will finish his 6 fights before he considers hanging up his gloves...
Ed Soares

So there you have it. UFC fans will be treated to at least six more Silva fights. After the jump, my thoughts on who those six fights should be against.

Anderson Silva will defend his middleweight title in the main event at UFC 90 in October, but when you hear the comments that Silva's manager, Ed Soares, made to MMAWeekly, you get the feeling that the Cote fight may be Silva's last as a middleweight.

Soares said:

"We're not looking past Patrick Cote, but I think we'll take one step at a time and see what happens. But yeah, if a Chuck Liddell fight came up, we'd take it," stated Soares. "Whoever the UFC wants to put in front of us, he wants to fight the best, and whoever that may be at the time, that's who he wants to fight."

Frankly, I'm not so sure I believe that Silva and Soares aren't looking past Patrick Cote, but really, you can't blame them for looking ahead. Silva is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, and at middleweight he's running out of good opponents. It only makes sense for Silva to look for a big fight at light heavyweight, and a Silva-Liddell fight would be one of the biggest in the UFC's history.