ANDERSON SILVA said he was “just joking” about being knocked out TWICE in sparring ahead of his fight with Jake Paul.
The UFC legend faces Paul over eight rounds in Arizona this weekend.
But he caused concern after claiming in an interview that he was knocked out two times in training.
Silva, speaking at the open workout, has since clarified that it was just kidology and lost in translation.
He said: “Listen guys, let me tell you something very important.
“When I talk about the guys doing the hard sparring and the knockout, it was just joking.
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“Because I’m training with the young kids and the guys asked me, and I don’t put nothing bad in my mind, and the guys say, ‘Oh, Anderson take knockout in training.’
“Of course not. I just like to help and put my partners up, that’s the question.”
Silva, 47, made the controversial comments during an interview with MMA Weekly.
He said: “I’m training hard for win — I’m training with the good boxers, high-level, and five guys come to help me.
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“And the last sparring with [my sparring partner], he is knocked me out two times, and when I finish my training, I talked to my coach and even said, ‘Coach, let me tell you something, why the guys knock me out two times?’
“And the coach said, ‘You need to prepare for war, and you prepare for war.’”
Silva’s trainer Luiz Carlos Dorea denied the comments and Silva later released a statement addressing the situation.
He wrote: “After seeing the reports and concern for me, I’d like to clarify two important things. One, I was NEVER knocked out in sparring.
“I misspoke in that interview as I sometimes do when interviewing in English and exaggerated the normal back-and-forth action that occurs in sparring.
“Second, this sparring session I referenced was in early September.
“The interview with MMA Weekly was done on Sept. 13 and, for some reason, just released this week. So, it wasn’t recent.”
The Arizona commission are still set to investigate Silva’s claim ahead of the bout with Paul, 25.
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
