Anderson Silva is probably going to just keep doing this, so we might as well get used to it

Anderson Silva sat there in front of the media on Saturday night and told it like it was. You know, sort of.

Following his unanimous decision win over Derek Brunson at UFC 208, the man who used to be one of the greatest fighters alive told us straight up: “I’m old. I’m very old.”

By most standards, he’s actually not. He’s a few months shy of his 42nd birthday. He’s fit and healthy, or at least as healthy as a guy who gets hit in the head for a living can be. There was that incident where he snapped his leg in half on live TV, but he bounced back reasonably well, perhaps in part with the help of those banned substances that found their way into his drug test sample before his next fight.

Watching Silva (34-8 MMA, 17-4 UFC) move around the cage against Brunson (16-5 MMA, 7-3 UFC), we saw reminders of the guy he used to be. He still moves the same, albeit a little slower. He still manages to be playful yet dangerous, even if these days it seems like the ratio of anticipating violence to actually witnessing it has shifted toward greater inactivity. You see him standing there, dangling his lead out in front of him, and you get the sense that he might do something amazing. It just no longer feels as inevitable as it once did.

And that’s fine, but it does seem like it’s going to take some getting used to. As Silva made very clear following this squeaker of a victory, he is probably just going to keep doing this. Why shouldn’t he? He’s clearly enjoying himself. He’s not out there taking terrible beatings, even when he does lose, and his name still puts a few butts in seats, which at the present moment is a power rare enough to seem almost miraculous.

Face it, there’s nothing stopping him from doing this over and over again, conceivably for years. The question we have to ask ourselves is, are we happy about that?

It’s weirdly tough to answer, in part because this isn’t usually how these things go. Usually when a former great ages out of his prime in this sport, the decline comes quickly and violently, like ripping off a Band-Aid. Then it’s a question of whether he’ll see the reality for what it is (probably not), or whether he’ll insist on taking a few more unnecessary beatings just to be sure (yep, most likely that one).

But Silva’s situation is a little different. He hasn’t gone from great to terrible, the way most 41-year-old former champs would. He’s gone from great to pretty good. He’s not going to beat the world’s best middleweights at this point, and frankly it’d be borderline irresponsible to ask him to try. Anyone who puts Silva in a cage with Yoel Romero right now ought to be brought up on charges. But can he knock around the bottom half of the top 15 and come out with roughly as many wins as losses? Sure, probably. Will we enjoy watching that? I don’t know. Maybe?

One of the things that makes it depressing to watch great athletes get old is that it serves as a reminder of our own decay. This person who once was so young and powerful and capable of incredible feats has, just like the rest of us, been dragged down by the terrible forces of time.

When they get dragged down so far they can’t get up (remember what happened to B.J. Penn just last month), it’s particularly painful, but at least it’s over relatively quickly. When the light dims a little at a time right before our eyes, it’s sad in a different way, like seeing the Rolling Stones still out there with their craggy faces and their old guy necks, mimicking the act of fun.

And, see, for them it is fun. Just like when Silva says that he loves to fight, even though he doesn’t have to anymore, you believe him. He’s not doing this for us, so why should he stop for us?

Maybe the answer is that he shouldn’t, and most likely he won’t. He’ll probably keep showing up, keep doing his usual Anderson Silva thing, only a little less so each time. He’ll eventually lose this battle against time and gravity, as we all will, but he seems determined to lose it in slow, inoffensive stages.

Honestly, it’s not the worst ending you can imagine, and certainly not the worst one we’ve seen in this sport. Maybe that will just have to be good enough for us. Seems like it is for him.

For complete coverage of UFC 208, check out the UFC Events section of the site.