Former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva may be the MMA GOAT and is without question the greatest middleweight in the sport’s history. However, he is now 45 years old. After winning just one fight in eight years, UFC president Dana White was not comfortable with “The Spider” fighting any more, and released him from his contract with one fight left.

Silva is adamant that he can still perform at a high level, but there is a real question as to for who. Bellator MMA, ONE Championship, and the PFL have all passed, each expressing the greatest respect, and desire to see Silva retire with his health.

The latest promotion to take a pass, is, a little ignominiously, Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship.

At this time we are not interested in Anderson Silva competing for BKFC,” texted BKFC president David Feldman to Cole Shelton for BJPENN.com. “He’s a legend and I loved watching him fight. We need to concentrate on building our fighters already signed to BKFC.”

There is now a very question as to where Silva ends up. 

I love and have always loved what I do,” wrote Silva on Instagram last week. “Winning and losing are a part of it, it has absolutely nothing to do with age, I made technical mistakes and lost, but I didn’t lose what’s most important, the will and the desire to continue doing what I love, I still have the warrior spirit and that burning flame in my heart that motivates me, I have total belief that I can continue to compete in the elite of MMA. I take this moment to reflect about my career and to plan my next moves… Stay Tuned!!!

Silva is a true mixed martial artists, with a background in multiple combat sports. He is a 3rd degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He trained to make the Brazilian Taekwondo team prior to the 2016 Rio Olympics, but was unsuccessful; TKD was his original martial art, and he holds a high belt ranking in it. Silva has for many years expressed the desire to box Roy Jones Jr. He’s also a black belt in Muay Thai (yah, that’s not a thing, but in Brazil it is, so you tell them). And he has even dabbled in Capoeira. So the combat sports world is his oyster.

But exactly where remains a good question.