Wonderboy feels Anderson Silva beating Israel Adesanya would put a smile on his face

UFC 234’s co-main event fight between the surging Israel “The Last Stylebender” Adesanya and Anderson “The Spider” Silva is generating much more attention than the main event itself between the UFC middleweight chmpion Robert Whittaker and Kelvin Gastelum. Adesanya vs. Silva is an extremely interesting match-up between two highly accomplished strikers. It is also being considered by many as a “passing of the torch” moment between Silva and Adesanya. One of the UFC’s best strikers, Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson was recently asked about his opinion about the potential outcome of the fight in an interview by MMA Fighting. Thomspn stated that because Silva has always been his idol, thus Silva beating Adesanya would put a smile on his face, but he does not see it happening.

Thomspon, who has previously trained with Silva before making his MMA debut and his close friend and former UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida, feels that Silva will get schooled by Adesanya. Thompson explained that he believes that Silva’s horrific leg injury and age have taken a lot out of him and he is not the same fighter as he used to be. Here’s what he had to say:

You know what? To be honest with you, I don’t think it will be [competitive], I mean, from watching Anderson Silva’s last few fights, he just wasn’t the same. I think whenever he broke his leg, when he fought (Chris) Weidman, it took a lot out of him. I think he was out for a very long time, and he just doesn’t, I don’t know — I don’t know if he doesn’t have that drive or that timing like he used to have. He just felt very slow and just didn’t have that timing like he used to.
I think Israel’s going to go out there and school him. I mean, it would be cool — I think it would be very cool to see Anderson, him being the veteran, go out there and just finish him. That would definitely put a smile on my face, but I don’t see it happening.