Anderson Silva comments on decision loss to Jake Paul: ‘I failed my whole strategy’

Hear what ‘The Spider’ had to say following his close unanimous decision loss to ‘The Problem Child’ Jake Paul in Arizona on Saturday night.

Anderson Silva was supposed to be the man to finally take out Jake Paul after the YouTuber turned boxer had punked the MMA community multiple times. Alas, it was not to be. After seven closely contested rounds, Paul knocked “The Spider” down in the eighth and final round, cementing a unanimous decision win over Silva (watch the highlights here)

Following the event, a gracious but clearly bummed Silva spoke at the post-fight press conference about how he was feeling.

“The Jake is better than me today,” Silva said. “Because I tried to put in my game inside in my whole strategy, and that’s what I talked to my coach in the room, you know? I don’t found my distance, and I fail in my strategy, and Jake’s better than me today. That’s it.”

Silva made it clear, though, that he wasn’t done competing in combat sports.

“I can’t stop,” he said when asked if this was his last fight. “You ask me about ‘You stop or not?’ I can’t stop.”

As for the fateful knockdown in the eighth, Anderson Silva put it down to a regular mistake he makes with balance and stance when boxing.

“I failed in the strategy, and the last round, Jake make the good punch,” Anderson said. “And my base was not correct, that’s what my coach say, my base was not correct. And that’s when I took the punch. But I didn’t feel knocked out. I don’t feel power, but I wasn’t in good balance, and that’s why I took the punch.”

“Of course I have more experience in doing this a lot and this is happening with me again one more time. I just talked to my coach: ‘I don’t believe it. I trained hard to not do the same stupid position.’ But I’m human. I’m superhero, but sometimes, my half-human fails. Yeah.”

While many of Jake Paul’s past opponents have been quick to call for a rematch, Silva sounded less interested.

“I think it’s very important that people respect the moment, Jake’s moment now,” Silva said. “I’m black samurai. I know I lost, I know I failed my whole strategy, and my opponent won. And I need to respect that. I’m not the same, like other guys who fought Jake – ‘Oh, I need revenge, I need a rematch.’ I don’t know. Let’s go see what happens, you know? Maybe. I don’t know.”

And surprisingly enough, “The Spider” sounded interested in helping Jake Paul move forward with a UFC fighter’s union.

“If UFC union is a union for help and doing something better for MMA fighters,” he said. “And I think Jake and I can do something huge for help this new generation, you know?”