SUMMARY
This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.
Blood and tears were shed as Uriah “Primetime” Hall (17-9) knocked out the legendary MMA icon Anderson “The Spider” Silva (34-11, 1NC) in his potential retirement fight in the UFC on Saturday, October 31 (Sunday, November 1, Manila time), at UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.
After a slow two rounds, the action turned up in the 3rd round with Hall landing a clean right hook that dropped the former middleweight champion to the ground just seconds before the bell rang.
Hall, then, went to work in the 4th round and punished the reckless attack of Silva with a sneaky right hand followed by a vicious ground and pound that forced the referee to stop the bout.
Right after the stoppage, Hall immediately expressed his respect to Silva and even apologized for spoiling the possible retirement fight of the future hall of famer.
“Hats off to the legend for what he has done for the sport,” Hall said during the post-match interview.
“There’s a lot of emotions, I know the job was to get out there and get the W, but to separate those emotions, that’s a work itself and I was honored to share that moment with him [Silva],” he added.
Hall, now on a 3-match win streak, also believes that this victory could lead to a title shot and called out the defending champion Israel Adesanya, who was in the crowd to witness Silva’s final bow.
“I’ve been in this sport for a while, I think I absolutely found my mark,” Hall said. “I feel like I’m exactly where I need to be and I definitely could take on the champ.”
“For the meantime, if the UFC thinks they can send someone to beat me, that’s not a problem. My goals are set and remain the same – to be a world champ.”
‘Today is the final day’
The 45-year old Silva took his time and expressed his emotions before leaving the UFC octagon, potentially for the last time.
In his interview, Silva mentioned that this fight is his last fight in the UFC, calling it the ‘last day’.
I’m enjoying my moment, and sometimes it’s very difficult for us to stop,” Silva said. “But today is the final day, I’m so happy to be here and doing my last show for my fans here in UFC and for the UFC family.”
However, despite his farewell to the UFC, Silva looked undecided on whether he’ll completely retire from MMA or not.
“I don’t know. First, I go back home, and see everything with my team. It’s tough to say if it’s my last [fight] or not because this is my air, this is what I do for my entire life and with my heart. Let’s go see.”
Silva still holds the longest win streak in UFC history with 16, but the former champion only won once in his last 9 fights. This is also his second straight loss that came via knockout.
On the other hand, in the co-main event, the up and coming featherweight prospect Bryce “Thug Nasty” Mitchell (14-1) extended his impressive streak in the UFC as he outclassed Andre “Touchy” Fili 21-8 via unanimous decision.
Mitchell, now at 5-0 in UFC, had a dominant ground control all throughout the fight and easily absorbed all the heavy hits from Fili in the last two rounds. – Rappler.com
Add a comment
How does this make you feel?
There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.