Seven days ago, Tim Sylvia told his friend and longtime training partner Sherman Pendergarst that he was coming back to the UFC after four years away.
The next day, Pendergarst succumbed to cancer, and Sylvia received another punch to the stomach when he heard he wasn’t signed.
When Sylvia later found out that Frank Mir would be fighting Daniel Cormier in Strikeforce instead of him, he was “shocked.”
“I love to fight,” Sylvia said. “I still want to do it. I still can do it, and I think I’m still one of the top 20 in the world.”
He’s started making funeral arrangements for his friend.
“It was one of the hardest ones I’ve had to deal with,” Sylvia said. “Just because I went and saw him the night before he passed, and that I went to the hospital as he was laying at rest in his hospital bed just to say my goodbyes. I keep thinking back and seeing Sherm and knowing that he’s no longer with us.
“It was definitely a dramatic moment, like, ‘Whoa, I’m back.’ A few hours pass, and it’s like, ‘Oh, I’m not fighting now.’ This sucks. But I think in the long run, all of this stuff makes you stronger.”
Sylvia ‘shocked’ after latest brush with UFC
Seven days ago, Tim Sylvia told his friend and longtime training partner Sherman Pendergarst that he was coming back to the UFC after four years away. The next day, Pendergarst succumbed to cancer, and Sylvia received another punch to the stomach when he heard he wasn’t signed. When Sylvia later found out that Frank Mir…
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