Retired UFC fighter shares blunt advice amid Wanderlei Silva’s post-fight debacle

A former UFC slugger has a message for other fighters in the wake of Wanderlei Silva’s post-fight disaster.

Silva recently had a boxing match that went awry. He shared the ring with Acelino Frietas in the main event of Spaten Fight Night 2. “The Axe Murderer” was disqualified after delivering multiple headbutts to his opponent. A brawl between both teams began in the ring and it ended after Frietas’ son, Rafael, knocked Silva out cold.

In a new edition of MMAFighting.com‘s “The Fighter vs. The Writer,” Matt Brown said that aging fighters should simply walk away when their time has passed.

“Unfortunately, no fighter is going to listen to coaches or friends or family and be like ‘you shouldn’t do it’ and they’ll be like ‘I’ll prove you wrong,’” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “That’s what gets fighters to level they’re at is proving people wrong. No one believes when you start your first amateur MMA fight that you’re going to be a UFC champion either. That’s what we live off of, that feeling.

“I just encourage all these fighters, anyone listening, any fighter that hears this, you’ve got to be more than just a fighter. Your identity just has to be more than that. Now when you’re in there fighting, you have to be only a fighter. When you’re actively competing, trying to work towards a championship, you don’t need to be distracted in your mind and all your eggs need to be in that basket. You can’t have a single egg in another basket. But when it’s time to hang it up, you’ve got to find something else. You have to.”

Silva is 49 years old and he continues to compete in combat sports. During his prime, “The Axe Murderer” was involved in some memorable brawls that may have done permanent damage. His recent post-fight incident certainly hasn’t helped matters.