According to Anderson
Silva, he didn’t say exactly what he meant to say in an
interview that became a hot topic heading into this weekend’s fight
with Jake
Paul.
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Concerns regarding Silva’s health became a focus earlier this week
when “The Spider” said in an interview that he had been knocked out
twice in sparring during camp.
“I talked to my coach and even said, ‘Coach, let me tell you
something, why the guys knock me out two times?’” Silva told MMA
Weekly at a press conference for the event on Sept. 13. “And the
coach said, ‘You need to prepare for war, and you prepare for
war.’”
The interview prompted the Arizona Gaming Department, which is
regulating the event, to look into the matter. However, Silva
recently issued a statement via
TMZ Sports claiming that he misspoke during the interview with
MMA
Weekly.
“After seeing the reports and concern for me, I’d like to clarify
two important things. One, I was NEVER knocked out in sparring. I
misspoke in that interview as I sometimes do when interviewing in
English and exaggerated the normal back-and-forth action that
occurs in sparring,” the statement read.
“Second, this sparring session I referenced was in early September.
The interview with MMA Weekly was done on Sept. 13 and, for some
reason, just released this week. So, it wasn’t recent.”
According to TMZ Sports, sources close to Silva revealed that the
former UFC middleweight champion meant to say “knockdown” but
inadvertently said “knockout” instead. Meanwhile, Silva’s coach,
Luiz Carlos Dorea, also issued a statement to
MMAFighting.com confirming that an instance where Silva was
knocked out “never happened.”
Silva vs. Paul takes place on Saturday at Gila River Arena in
Glendale, Ariz. and airs via pay-per-view on Showtime. Silva
concluded his statement by adding that he is ready to put on a
great performance against the YouTube personality turned boxer.
“More importantly, my training camp has been great,” Silva said. “I
am fit and ready to fight and the only knockout people should be
worried about is the one I’m about to deliver to Jake Paul on
Saturday night.”