Wanderlei Silva calls out fellow legend for rematch nearly 20 years after first fight

Wanderlei Silva made his return to the cage last month after a four year long hiatus that briefly saw him handed a lifetime suspension from the NSAC before then being released by the UFC, receiving a reduced suspension, and signing with Bellator MMA.

When Silva stepped into the cage in the main event of Bellator 180 against Chael Sonnen, he wasn’t too thrilled with Sonnen’s gameplan for the fight. After dropping a unanimous decision to the former UFC title challenger, Silva criticized Sonnen for his lack of an exciting gameplan.

Following the fight, Silva also revealed his desire to continue to fight despite the fact that he is now 41 years old. With that being said, Silva isn’t looking for easy fights, and is now calling out a fellow MMA legend, one he met in the Octagon nearly 20 years ago.

He spoke to MMA Brazil:

“I started fighting again to fight Belfort.” Silva told MMA Brasil. “I wanted to fight Sonnen and I did that, I fought him once and I want to fight him again, I want to fight Rampage who’s 1-1 against me (actually, it’s 2-1 for Wanderlei). But what I really want is to fight Belfort. He’s the one I want to put my hands on. And he better not come up with any broken hand excuses this time around.”

In regards to questions about his age, Wanderlei Silva says that he feels like a 20 year old:

“I don’t think I’ll run into any health problems. I completely changed my diet. I’m trying to eat only a few non-organic foods. I’ve been eating more meat, rice, beans and other organic stuff. I stay out in the sun more, eat, sleep and train well. All of this gives me the health of a 20-year-old.

“I feel motivated. I can go through two good training sessions per day. If that guy (Sonnen) didn’t just want to smother me, it would’ve been a way better fight. I endured all three rounds going through the worst. When the best comes, you’ll see how delicious it’s going to be.”

on 7/5/2017.