Anderson Silva always said that he would never fight teammates and friends like Lyoto Machida and Rondaldo "Jacare" Souza. Now, the former middleweight king has changed his tune.
"I always said I wouldn?t fight teammates, but it?s not mutual," Silva told TV show "Altas Horas" in Brazil, according to a report from Guilherme Cruz.
Indeed, when pressed, Machida didn't rule out fighting his friend Silva one day in the future. "The Spider" says that the principle of not fighting teammates is an important one to him but since it evidently one that is reciprocated, he is now willing to fight "The Dragon" or "Jacare."
"We take that very seriously at Team Nogueira, but Lyoto is not from Team Nogueira, neither is ?Jacare?, so it?s a little vague. In every interview they gave, they said they would fight [me], so I can?t be any different," the former middleweight champ said.
"I don?t plan to fight any friend of mine, especially Lyoto, but if I earn a title shot in the future and we have to fight each other, we will."
Machida doesn't seem to have any problem knocking out training partners and friends, as he did to Mark Munoz last year. For his part, Silva is still in the early stages of his recovery from the horrific leg injuries he sustained against Chris Weidman at UFC 168 in late 2013.
Silva is resigned to the fact that he won't fight again this year, but has consistently been making improvements and ratcheting up his training post-surgery, and is confident that he will return to action.
Follow Elias on Twitter @EliasCepeda & @YahooCagewriter
