Anderson Silva interested in Nick Diaz rematch — under the right conditions

In January of 2015, MMA legends Anderson Silva and Nick Diaz stepped into the cage together for a matchup that had fight fans drooling in anticipation. After five wild, rounds, Silva was announced the winner of this fight by unanimous decision. Unfortunately, that result was eventually overturned when Silva tested positive for Drostanolone and Diaz tested positive for marijuana metabolites.

Four years later, Anderson Silva says he’s still interested in a do-over with Nick Diaz — but not for the UFC’s benefit. The former middleweight champion feels the UFC has a habit of using aging stars to promote young prospects, and he doesn’t want a potential rematch with Diaz to serve that purpose.

“I think the fight with Nick Diaz would be a very cool fight, very interesting,” Silva said in a Portuguese interview with Rap 77 (translation via MMAjunkie). “Because our last fight, both of us ended up getting caught in the doping, and it was a no-contest. So, actually, the fight didn’t exist. But I think Nick is a guy who has a name, a guy who has a history in this sport. And what we can’t accept is going into the UFC’s game of wanting to use the legends that they have to promote the young guys.

“I’ve talked about this a lot with Nick and with other athletes, as well,” he continued. “We don’t have an issue with fighting any of these kids. We don’t have an issue. We just want to be respected for everything we have built in this sport. Never, in my early trajectory, I never called out anyone. I always let things happen naturally. And I think it can’t be different.

“The UFC has this thing of wanting to promote new talents that don’t have the charisma with the older athletes who have the charisma and who knew how to get the machine working when we were in there. And that’s something that today’s kids can’t do. They go up there, they fight, do good fights. But, once they open their mouths, they only say crap. And they can’t get charisma with the audience. It’s no use being a good fighter and not being charismatic.”

Does a 2019 rematch between Nick Diaz and Anderson Silva interest you?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 1/13/2019.