After being brutally KO’d by Roy Nelson earlier this year, many fight fans, including UFC President Dana White called for the retirement of Minotauro Nogueira. While Nogueira hasn’t had any matches since then, or given a definitive answer as to whether or not he’s ready to close the book on his MMA career, his close friend and training partner, Anderson Silva is speaking out against critics.

He spoke to MMAJunkie about Nogueira’s career, and responded to the question ‘should Nog retire’ with:

“That’s a good question, but not for Dana or for me (to answer). It’s a question only for Rodrigo. I respect the time for Rodrigo to fight or say, ‘No more fights.’”

“I’m a fighter; Rodrigo’s a fighter,” Silva said. “When Rodrigo says to all the people, ‘Now, I’m done.’ That’s it, he’s done.”