Anderson Silva explains why he asked to fight Daniel Cormier at UFC 200

When Jon Jones was pulled from UFC 200 after he was flagged for a potential doping violation stemming from a failed drug test, it looked like light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier was going to head home without a fight and without a paycheck.

24-hours later Cormier was not only still fighting on the card, but he was facing arguably the greatest UFC champion in history.

Former 10-time defending middleweight champion Anderson Silva heard about Jones being pulled from the card on Wednesday night and immediately called his manager to ask about fighting Cormier on Saturday night.

Considering Silva is coming off a loss to current middleweight champion Michael Bisping and just had his gall bladder removed in May, it seemed like an odd decision to ask to fight the light heavyweight champion on two days notice, but the future UFC Hall of Famer didn't blink the opportunity arose.

"It's a great challenge fighting at this event. Obviously, I wanted to be fighting in my own weight class for the belt, but I'm here. It's a great challenge through everything that I've done, through wins and defeats and everything. So it's a great challenge for me," Silva said when explaining why he took the fight with Cormier on Thursday.

Silva knows facing a fighter as dangerous as Cormier on short notice isn't an easy task but that's exactly why he wanted the chance to face him in the first place.

Silva made it clear that he doesn't believe Cormier is an easy opponent or that this stylistically favors him on such short notice.

"I don't want Daniel or anyone else to think I'm underestimating him or coming in here trying to challenge a champion. I'm not doing any of that," Silva said. "I'm here to challenge myself and I think that I haven't trained in a few months, but I think I'm in good condition to go in there and put on a good fight."

Silva was in great spirits after flying into the United States and immediately going through a rigorous series of medical exams to get cleared in time to fight Cormier on Saturday night.

Obviously, Silva isn't going to have much time at all to prepare for Cormier, especially considering he'll be hitting the scales to weigh-in early Friday morning and then the fight is Saturday night.

Silva is one of the most experienced fighters on the UFC roster so he's faced every kind of opponent that could be offered to him and he believes he knows what to expect out of Cormier.

"I think it's going to be interesting. I'm going to have to run from him a lot," Silva said with a smile on his face. "I'm joking boss. I came to fight."

As far as the situation that came up to allow Silva to take the fight at UFC 200, the famed Brazilian also addressed what happened with Jones this week.

Over the years, Silva and Jones have become friends and even trained together a couple of times in the past.

As excited as Silva was to offer to take the spot vacated by Jones on the card, he felt bad for what the interim light heavyweight champion has faced over the last day since he was pulled from UFC 200.

"I was sad and I know he went through a lot and I know he was very well prepared to fight Daniel Cormier. With USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency) coming into the UFC, things have gotten a lot more professional, we have to watch out for everything we put in our bodies, every supplement, things can happen," Silva said.

"So I think something happened and I hope he doesn't get mad that I took his place."