Anderson Silva has said numerous times that he would never fight Lyoto Machida. Silva often calls Machida a brother. Apparently his brother never got the memo because the former UFC champion isn’t ready to close the door on a potential.

The Super Fight has eluded the UFC for years. Dana White’s inability to sign cash bonanzas like GSP vs. Silva and/or Silva vs. Jon Jones has left the UFC without that historic epic big fight. Fortunately or unfortunately there is one big fight left on the table. It is certainly telling that this is what the epic fight has come down to in 2013.

Lyoto Machida stunned the MMA world when he moved to middleweight several weeks ago. Machida made an immediate impact, quickly disposing of his friend Mark Munoz in his 185 debut. It didn’t take long for the Silva vs. Machida questions to start. Up until now that fight has been off the table. While not confirming anything, the Dragon said enough recently when he kept the door open on the big 185 showdown.

Machida was asked recently about fighting his training partner and close friend Anderson Silva. Machida surprisingly said he’d consider it when the time is right.

“I don’t want this fight,” Machida said. “We’re close, and we have the same manager. He’s fighting for the belt, and I’m still far from it. It’s hard to talk about it now. I don’t know if we will cross paths one day. Let’s let things happen and decide what to do. You have to be prepared to face to situation. You have to talk about it.”

This is a much different sentiment than what Silva has conveyed whenever he has been asked about the fight. The talk first started a few years ago when Machida ran through Rashad Evans for the UFC light heavyweight title beginning what Joe Rogan called “the Machida era.” Silva immediately squashed any talk about a potential dream fight at the time. Even as recently, Silva said that the match is not only off limits, he’d retire before he’d fight his friend.

“Jacare is a guy that has been doing a great job and can earn a title shot,” Silva said. “Lyoto is a close friend, a great athlete, and we train together, just like Jacare (Souza).”

“If we get to a point where we’d have to fight, I’d even give up the title.”

Obviously these two aren’t on the same page. I always wondered why someone like Machida would even bother moving to 185 if his end-goal wasn’t to win the title, Silva being champion or not. I thought the second Machida dropped to middleweight that he would fight if Silva if presented the opportunity.

MMA is a weird sport. You see friends and even family members compete against each other all of the time at the highest levels of sport from football to basketball to baseball, etc. Yet in MMA, a sport where these guys spar together all of the time, they refuse to fight each other, sacrificing business and money in the name of friendship. Honorable yes but I just never understood that.

Fortunately for both of these guys they may not have to worry about it if Silva can’t get past Chris Weidman in December.

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Eric G. Eric is the owner and editor-in-chief of the Camel Clutch Blog. Eric has worked in the pro wrestling industry since 1995 as a ring announcer in ECW and a commentator/host on television, PPV, and home video. Eric also hosted Pro Wrestling Radio on terrestrial radio from 1998-2009. Check out some of Eric's work on his IMDB bio and Wikipedia. Eric has an MBA from Temple University's Fox School of Business. More Posts - Website Follow Me:

