Issue 079

September 2011

He’s often labeled as the pound-for-pound best in all of MMA, but what does the future hold for ‘The Spider’ Anderson Silva?

In some ways, it’s easy to quantify exactly what UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva has accomplished during his five years in the Octagon. There’s his incredible 13-fight UFC win streak, a record in the world’s largest mixed martial arts promotion. There’s also his equally impressive eight-consecutive successful title defenses, a run that currently stands at four years and counting.

However, numbers never really seem to tell the full story, and so it is with the Brazilian wrecking machine. 

Until you’ve seen ‘The Spider’ flatten Vitor Belfort with a single, snapping front kick, you can’t possibly comprehend the type of power he possesses in every perfectly located strike. Until you’ve witnessed Silva’s miraculous, fifth-round submission over Chael Sonnen, you can’t possibly understand the heart and determination (not to mention grappling skills) the champ brings to the cage. Until you’ve watched Silva defy the laws of physics in order to cleverly avoid Forrest Griffin’s lunging strikes – battering the former light heavyweight champion in return – you can’t possibly realize the speed, athleticism and creativity that Silva has developed during his 11 years as a professional fighter.

UFC president Dana White has been cageside for each of Silva’s 13 UFC victories and believes he has a firm grasp on what makes the middleweight champion unique.

“He’s the greatest of all time,” White tells Fighters Only. “This guy is capable of doing things that other people aren’t. Look at his winning streak in the UFC. Nobody has ever done that. And to do it when you’re the champion, when everyone is bringing their very best against you? That’s insane.

“People love the finish, and Anderson Silva is a finisher. He’s had a couple of goofy moments, but he finishes fights. Anderson Silva does things that other people can’t do, and he does it consistently.” Belfort, Sonnen, Griffin, Chris Leben, Rich Franklin, Nate Marquardt, Dan Henderson and James Irvin, among others, all likely share a similar opinion. 

Silva’s UFC victories have come against a group of fighters that own 274 career MMA wins. His 13 career Octagon victories are good for sixth-most in the history of the promotion, trailing only UFC Hall of Famers Matt Hughes, Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell, along with Georges St Pierre and Tito Ortiz, for most all-time. And his 68.3% striking accuracy is the highest for any fighter in the promotion’s 18-year history.

Of course, it’s those few “goofy moments” that Silva’s detractors often point to in order to suggest the UFC champion is merely mortal.

Desert yawn

It was a warm, April evening in the United Arab Emirates, and Silva was set to cap off an event fit for a king – or to be more specific, a Royal Family who had recently purchased a minority interest in the UFC. But rather than walk into the Octagon and lay waste to what most considered a completely overmatched opponent in submission specialist Demian Maia, Silva danced, taunted and yelled at his opponent for the majority of what was ultimately a rather lackluster five-round affair.

White refers to the performance as “the one ugly, nasty thing” in Silva’s career. The champ knows it certainly wasn’t his best display, but he claims the experience was cathartic in some ways, perhaps even a necessary bump on the road to greatness.

“When you enter the Octagon, you bring with you months and months of built-up tension, both from the things your opponent has said in building up the fight, as well as things that happen in life – some related to the fight and some not,” Silva says through an interpreter. “I don’t want to make an excuse for my performance that night, but I had difficulty finding my rhythm. Perhaps it was all that emotion coming out, but I was angry, and it affected my ability to do my job at the highest level.”

Panned by White in the evening’s post-event press conference, Silva also didn’t escape the wrath of fans and pundits alike. Despite an incredible 10 wins via stoppage in his first 12 Octagon outings, Silva was portrayed as villain, either incapable of or uninterested in finishing off his opponents.It was a stunning and rapid shift in general perception. Silva said he doesn’t necessarily blame fans for their swaying alliance, but he also feels a little patience, not to mention education, can go a long way.

“The fans are fans,” Silva says. “They’re cheering one minute; they’re booing you the next minute. A lot of times, fans are the greatest thing ever. But sometimes fans don’t really understand what’s happening in the ring at times. So, I don’t really blame them for reacting in some of the ways they do.”

Silva’s longtime manager, Ed Soares, said he thinks the issue lies in a simple misunderstanding of his client’s true personality and real intentions. “I just believe that Anderson is a very misunderstood fighter,” he offers. “First of all, he’s misunderstood because of the language barrier. He’s always been a little bit intimidated. But he’s such a good person, and people haven’t been able to get exposed to that. He’s a very intelligent guy, but sometimes he gets a little bit lost in translation.”

It was April 2010, and here was Silva, a future UFC Hall of Famer, without the support of the MMA community. He needed a miraculous change of image. He needed another middleweight willing to shoulder the load of criticism that was currently square on his shoulders. He got it in one Chael Patrick Sonnen.

The Sonnen chronicles

It started as a joke. Or at least, Chael Sonnen appeared to be joking. In public appearance after public appearance, the UFC, WEC and BodogFIGHT veteran rattled off a series of one-liners designed to attack Silva on a variety of fronts – his marketability, his refusal to speak English in media settings, his overblown ground skills (and the quality of his black belt from the legendary Nogueira brothers, which Sonnen said amounted to a Happy Meal trinket). He called Silva’s bizarre win against Maia “par for the course,” and Sonnen insisted that he had a “moral obligation to society to beat Silva up.”

It was big talk, to be sure, but it seemed harmless enough. In a fan-driven Q&A session in early 2010, Soares even sat in the audience for part of Sonnen’s monologue and was seen laughing at a few of the more entertaining barbs. It was all in good fun, and whatever it takes to sell a fight, right? Silva didn’t quite see it that way.

Despite battling through a debilitating rib injury suffered in training, Silva knew there was no way he would ever back out of the UFC 117 bout with Sonnen, which took place in August 2010. There was simply too much on the line. On the night of the fight, and with Sonnen already in the cage – pointing and yelling as his foe drew near – Silva offered a glimpse of what was to come for the challenger by donning a gi top and his treasured ‘McDojo’ waist wrap for his walk to the cage. What followed for the next 23 minutes was straight from the script of a Hollywood feature. The bout, which was justifiably awarded the Fighters Only 2010 MMA Awards ‘Fight of the Year,’ saw Sonnen outstrike, outwrestle and outclass Silva through four-and-a-half rounds, pounding the champion on the feet and blasting him on the ground. And then, the unthinkable – despite absorbing incredible punishment from the opening bell (320 total strikes, according to a FightMetric report), Silva seized a momentary opening and desperately locked in a triangle choke, Sonnen’s kryptonite, and forced him to tap just 110 seconds before the outspoken challenger would have otherwise walked away as the new middleweight champion.

The aftermath

Following Silva’s dramatic title defense over Sonnen, the champ’s critics were still just as vocal as before. Sure, he walked away with the win, they said, but how proud of a victory can you be when you were dominated by a journeyman wrestler for nearly the duration of the bout? As word of the champ’s pre-fight bruised ribs and potential cartilage issue spread, reports began to surface that Silva was less than 100% entering the bout. Still, his detractors wrote off the claims as just another smokescreen.

Fortunately for Silva, or perhaps completely by design, the entire process was documented in a film chronicling his life in the lead-up to the Sonnen fight. The feature is entitled Like Water, a title borrowed from the philosophy of the late martial arts pioneer, Bruce Lee. 

A 74-minute documentary that shows the champion in rarely seen moments, including relaxed settings with his wife and children,

Like Water provides fans with the best opportunity to understand what makes The Spider tick, Silva admits.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for all the people who watch it,” Silva said following the movie’s April premier. “You’re watching the real Anderson Silva. I like my work, but sometimes there is too much pressure for me. I’m the champion. I need to train all the time, more and more. But when I finish my training, then comes my day off and I stay with my family. I go to play soccer with my son, go and play games. I love it.”

For all his greatness, for all his bravado, Silva is still human at heart. He even admits to occasionally being brought down a notch or two by his teammate and greatest role model, Antonio Rodrigo ‘Minotauro’ Nogueira. “I think to get to where I am is complicated, but thank God I have good friends,” Silva said. “I have a very strong leader in Minotauro. Rodrigo is always making sure we know who we are. Whenever we are dazing in the stars a little bit, he puts us where we belong.”

But for all the insight and understanding that Like Water may provide, Silva’s reputation rehabilitation actually lay solely at the bottom of his right foot.

Blasting Belfort

With a shared path through MMA history, Silva’s countryman Vitor Belfort had previously trained alongside the champion in their native Brazil. Silva didn’t look too kindly upon Belfort’s decision to fight him this past February, even if it did represent a shot at the title for ‘The Phenom.’

However, when the opening bell sounded, Silva looked as if he might lay another egg. For three minutes, the champion stalked his pray, waiting for an opening. In the fourth minute, he saw it, and Silva launched a now-infamous front kick to the jaw that saw his opponent crumple to the canvas. A few follow-up punches later, and Belfort was out cold on the canvas. Perhaps more importantly, and in a phenomenon only possible in the all-or-nothing world of MMA, Silva’s reputation as a ruthless finisher was instantly restored.

The win brought Silva a date with Yushin Okami at August’s UFC 134 event in Rio de Janeiro. Need a reason to watch? The card marks the UFC’s first trip to Brazil in nearly 13 years, and Silva, the most famous Brazilian fighter of all, headlines the show. To sweeten the pot, it turns out Silva’s most recent career loss, a notorious January 2006 disqualification issued following a hotly contested illegal blow, came against Okami.

Oh, and then there’s Sonnen, who has re-emerged from the shadows to assist Okami in his preparation for the fight. Silva is taking the contest personally, chastising Okami for aligning himself with a “loser” in his training.

Should Silva win, there’s really precious little left for him to prove in the UFC’s middleweight division. Michael Bisping, Brian Stann and Mark Munoz are rapidly rising up the UFC 185lb ladder, but if you listen to those that know best, Silva can pretty much pick and choose his battles. Would he like to move up to 20lb, as he has twice before, and perhaps challenge budding superstar Jon Jones? How about a catch-weight bout with fellow pound-for-pound kingpin and UFC welterweight champ Georges St Pierre?

Silva’s goals seem less defined by wins and losses and more by personal satisfaction. “My biggest motivation is to be able to wake up everyday and do what I know how to do well: train and be with people that have always supported me from the very beginning,” he says. “My biggest motivation is to be able to wake up everyday and know that I’m not perfect, but that I can kick, punch, jump, smile and have my work well done.”

In some ways, it hardly matters. Just as the numbers behind Silva’s success don’t really explain exactly what he’s accomplished, neither would those wins, or really any other, prove the defining moment of Silva’s career. When you’re on Silva’s level, White said, it’s about your game as a whole, and Silva has plenty to go around. 

“Anderson Silva is by far the best fighter on the planet,” White adds. “He’s a human being. He’s going to have some off nights and some nights where he doesn’t look spectacular. The weirdness that went on in Abu Dhabi, I can never explain that. I can never defend that. But every other fight besides that, he’s the greatest fighter ever.

“Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all times because he could go in and do things that other players couldn’t do. That’s what Anderson Silva does. That’s what makes you the greatest of all time.”

Silva generally tries to deflect such high praise. But as the wins keep adding up, even The Spider must certainly realize his standing in the annals of the budding sport. Not surprisingly, Silva answers somewhat poetically when pressed to evaluate his own undeniable greatness. “I know where I belong, I know where I came from, and I know where I want to go.”

Is there anybody out there?

When Silva battles Okami at August’s UFC 134 event, the Brazilian champ will be gunning for his UFC-record-extending 14th consecutive win. After decimating nearly every available opponent in the promotion’s 185lb division, many fans are calling for ‘The Spider’ to move to 205lb.

White admits he simply can’t commit to what lies ahead for his middleweight champion, but he would certainly be in support of a move up. White says: “It’s funny, every time I say there’s nothing else, something pops up. Who knows? But I definitely would love to see him go to light heavyweight.”

Silva will certainly have to choose his moves wisely. While the exuberant champion oozes with youthfulness, his athletic abilities and often-boyish attitude seem to belie an inevitable truth: Father Time.

“One thing people forget about Anderson is that he’s 36 years old,” White said. “Nobody ever talks about that. When you talk about this guy being the best in the world, the fact that he’s 36 years old? He’s not 26.”

Silva has openly expressed he has only a handful of fights left in the tank, and the champion says he only wants blockbuster matchups. But when that means in terms of his final appearance remains to be seen.

“Who knows how much longer he can fight?” White asked. “He goes in, and bing, bang, boom, he ends fights so quick. So who knows how long? But it happens to the best of the best. One day, you get out of bed, and that s**t just isn’t coming off like it used to. You’re timing is off a little bit. 

“One of the other things I think has been so great about him is that he’s stayed so active. I think it’s the most important thing in a fighter’s career. Obviously, you need to lead a healthy, clean lifestyle, and if you’re lucky enough to not get injured, you need to stay busy.” 

UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta doesn’t generally play matchmaker, but as a fan, he sides with those who hope Silva will take on fellow UFC title-holder St Pierre before he decides to put on the gloves for the final time. “I want to see that fight,” Fertitta said. “That’s probably the one fight I really want to see the most.”

The greatest fighter of all time – Anderson Silva's legacy

Anderson Silva’s accomplishments in the cage are undeniable. He is, without question, a future UFC Hall of Famer and will long be remembered as one of the greatest fighters ever to compete in the Octagon. But with his mercurial behavior, Silva is often portrayed as a cantankerous, stubborn, and difficult to please.

UFC president Dana White, who once threatened to terminate Silva’s contract if he ever repeated his odd UFC 112 performance, said much of what you hear is actually overblown. 

“He’s tough to deal with sometimes, but who isn’t?” White acknowledges. “Everybody has their moments, their days.”

His bizarre win over Maia aside, Silva is currently riding a 13-fight win Octagon streak. In a sport where consecutive victories generally constitute a series of significant increases in pay, Silva’s unmatched run puts his boss in a rather unique situation. Aside from the champion’s longstanding goal to box Roy Jones Jr, which White will likely never allow, the UFC head insists Silva has never tried to leverage his success into unrealistic goals. 

“When you’re negotiating with people, everybody needs more money; everybody needs more this and that,” White reveals. “But overall, I think that we’ve been very, very good to Anderson Silva, and I think Anderson Silva has been good to us, as well.”