Feb 24, 2010 - Former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia has lost three of his last four fights and hasn't beaten a legitimate opponent in two and a half years. But he's hinting on Twitter that he expects to be fighting high-quality opponents soon, possibly in Japan.
Sylvia tweeted on Wednesday, "I am on the comeback but I didn't get into fighting to fight bums." That followed a tweet on Tuesday in which Sylvia said a scheduled fight with Brandon Lee Hinkle (a 36-year-old who's lost four of his last five fights and would be described by some MMA fans as a "bum") has been canceled.
Sylvia also hinted that he might be heading to Japan and that he'd like to fight both Josh Barnett and Alistair Overeem.
I'd love to see Sylvia vs. Barnett in Sengoku or Sylvia vs. Overeem in Dream, but I'm not going to hold my breath. For one thing I'm not sure that either Barnett or Overeem would be interested in fighting Sylvia. For another, Sylvia made a lot of money for losing to the two best heavyweights in MMA history (Fedor Emelianenko and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira) in 2008, but since then he hasn't seemed particularly interested in taking his sport seriously.
In 2009 Sylvia showed up out of shape and overweight and embarrassed himself in a loss to Ray Mercer, then won an easy fight against an overmatched opponent named Jason Riley. It's been almost six months since the Riley fight, and he's just now talking like someone who wants to get back into the ring.
It's not too late for the 33-year-old Sylvia to make himself relevant in MMA again, but it's getting close. It's time for Sylvia to do less tweeting and more fighting.
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