Anderson Silva Responds to Pros Picking Against Him

From former lightweight title holder Frankie Edgar to current welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre, everybody in the MMA world seems to be picking Chris Weidman over Anderson Silva to win at this weekend's UFC 162.

While you'd think that might irk the reigning middleweight king, he's actually pretty cool with it.

In fact, judging by his recent appearance on UFC Tonight, The Spider seems to be encouraging the talk.

"This is good because it's very important that people talk," Silva told hosts Chael Sonnen and Kenny Florian on Tuesday night. "Weidman has the fans, I have my fans, it's very important for the sport."

In typical Anderson Silva fashion, the middleweight champ jokingly deflected questions about specific fighters, such as St-Pierre, who picked Weidman to upset him on Saturday night, while also giving the undefeated challenger some props for his skill set.

"Weidman has good jiu-jitsu, good wrestling, good stand-up, it's a great fight," Silva said.

Beyond the usual fight week questions, Sonnen and Florian also asked The Spider about his recent statement regarding his chances in a possible superfight against light-heavyweight champ Jon Jones.

"I respect Jon Jones, I respect Chris Weidman, but I'm here for working," Silva said. "I no scared for Jon Jones, for Chris Weidman or whatever. I here for fight, that's it. Simple."

Check out the full interview in the video to hear more from The Spider.

One interesting thing to note from the talk is the good-natured ribbing between Silva and former rival Chael Sonnen.

I'm glad to see all of that bad blood and feuding go by the wayside.

Maybe one day they will have that barbecue they spoke of.

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