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.
Tim Sylvia 'On the Comeback,' Doesn't Want to Fight 'Bums'
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2/24/2010 2:50 PM ET By Michael David Smith
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- Michael David Smith
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Comments (Page 1 of 1)
He needs to fight in Dream and bounce around orgs for a bit, fighting a Pedro Rizzo, Jeff Monson (again), Sergei Kharitanov etc. before even thinking of going against Barnett or Ubereem.
I hate to point out the influence of PEDs in MMA, but Sylvia was an absolute wrecking machine up until he was busted for steroids after his KO of Gan McGee. Since that time Sylvia has gone 6-4 in the UFC with only 2 knockouts.
I recently watched Sylvia vs Cabbage, which was 1 year before he was busted, Sylvia was a beast with huge shoulders and muscular definition.
that was an unbelievable fight. cabbage took so much punishment. i always wished cabbage would get in shape, but i guess he never did.
joe rogan said he watched cabbage workout and said he was in great shape despite his physical appearance. i think cabbage just never evolved his game. honestly, i can't even think of any camps he has been known to be a part of, so possibly they were second rate.
i thought he trained in hawaii with renato verrisimo and bj, no??
I'd say he's pretty much irrelevant in MMA at this point, and I can't see him becoming a top 10 HW ever again. Not when Ray Mercer can clean your clock in a few seconds.
tim sylvia was known as a boxer in his dominance and he went up against one of the best hw's in a golden era of boxing hw's. i agree it made tim sylvia look stupid, but take nothing away from ray mercer either. kimbo wanted no part of it and had to do the street choke on a old mercer. i thought it was a good experience for everyone who compares mma to boxing. mma fighters (boxing) is a whole different ballpark then real boxers.
piprock, i agree with you. i meant no disrespect to mercer, as he was a top ranked boxer in his heyday. my point is that mercer is probably about 45 years old, has almost no experience in mma, and they fought with mma rules, meaning sylvia should have had a huge advantage, but got knocked the "f" out quickly. i suppose a quick ko like that could happen to anyone, but being that sylvia was once a ufc title holder, he should not have come in weighing 310 pounds, and got dropped like that.
yeah sylvia was dumb enough to walk right into mercer's biggest weapon. fedor put him down. mercer knocked him out. it was a big punch and no mma fighter ever knocked sylvia out like that. i don't think at least. randy hit him with everything he had and meerly stumbles sylvia. i'm sure he learned his lesson, and came to reality that he's not unstoppable at the boxing game. and if he comes back it'll be better than that. he's still a tough dude. would'nt mind seeing him fight barnett and overeem. they could round robin a steroids division and i'd still watch it. haha.
I have never been a big fan of Sylvia's. I would like to see him vs Barnett though.
id love to fight silva, i love to break his neck or die due to octagon related injuries.
Tim Silva is a bum. He isn’t relevant anymore.