Bigfoot: If Fedor returned, he’d have lost his eye
Guilherme Cruz: Do you think the doctors were right to stop the fight? Antonio Silva: Many said he could’ve returned for…
Guilherme Cruz: Do you think the doctors were right to stop the fight?
Antonio Silva: Many said he could’ve returned for round number three, but I’ll tell you something – because of Fedor’s heart and his attitude as a professional, he’d have returned for sure … If he returned, he’d have lost his eye, because I’d keep trying to hit it all the time.
The doctors are there to talk with the athlete and stop him from getting hurt. I was at the hotel and I saw him getting there around 5am, and I thought he had broken something because his face was pretty bad.
For the athlete he is, he’d have returned, but it maybe would have complicated things for him, because I was ready to fight round number three. I went into tears and the entire story went through my mind: where I come from, where I am now. I had to hold so the tears wouldn’t go down. I got puffy, but I was crazy to fight the third round.
GC: Do you still consider Fedor to be the greatest heavyweight of all times on MMA?
AS: For me, Fedor is the Pelé of MMA, besides being a very humble guy. When he left the hospital at 5am, I was at the hotel’s lobby and I talked to him and asked him not to stop fighting because he still has many things to show to the fans and that people still wanted to see him on the cage. And, after that, the guy came and kissed my forehead… Get it? He’s a wonderful guy, and everybody wants to see the best of all times in a good shape. He’s all about being humble.
GC: You’ve been through many things during your career. You’’ve had some visa issues in England and Minotauro helped you, you’ve had the doping thing, EliteXC when you won the belt and the event went out of business… How is it like to fight again and shine?
AS: God’s ways can seem messy sometimes, everything happens when it has to. I was supposed to fight Fedor a long time ago, but he didn’t accept it at the time, claiming I didn’t have a big name back then. I believe my moment was this and my mind is completely different now, because I’ve gone though much … I believe that if that fight had happened before the outcome wouldn’t be the same.
GC: You and Werdum had become great friends. How it’d be to face him in the semifinals?
AS: Me and Werdum laugh a lot, we joke about everybody, I can’t even describe how great he is … We party every time we see each other. We had lunch, had dinner, went shopping together. When I was in my room I called him to run at the gym.
But we’re professionals. I have my family, two daughters, and he has his wife, his daughter, and if we fight each other it’s business. We can’t not fight each other just because we’re friends. Two friends play against each other at soccer, even two brothers, even father and son and it won’t be any different in MMA because it a sport like the others.
If we have to do it, then we’ll go out for pizzas, like it happened now, and I guarantee you that the one who’s in the finals will have the other’s support, praying and cheering so that Brazil is the champion. We want Brazil to get the first place, and that’s what matters.
GC: Would you consider helping Werdum for his fight against Overeem?
AS: If Werdum needs me, I’ll go there and help him. Training is training, and today we’re professionals, and you end up fighting your training partner, that’s how it works. Of course I can’t know his game plan for when we fight each other, but when he fights another guy I can help him.