Issue 079

September 2011

Wanderlei Silva, Former Pride champion & UFC middleweight

I feel awesome about the UFC going back to Brazil, it gives me a great sense of pride. Talk of the UFC 134 event is on every television station in Brazil, alongside all other sports. Everybody is talking about the UFC. Finally, everybody there can see what is happening today in MMA across the world. It is very exciting.

With the UFC going back there, and with a show packed with Brazilian fighters just for the Brazilian fans, now the Brazilian media can see for themselves just how big the sport of MMA is today.

I have huge personal pride in seeing the UFC return to my home country. People like myself, ‘Minotauro’ Nogueira, Anderson Silva and ‘Shogun’ Rua, we have been speaking to many people back in Brazil, in the media, supporting MMA. We have had to be patient at times and go through the proper channels, and sometimes the guys in the media there ask s**t questions and make jokes, but it’s all been part of breaking down the boundaries. In Brazil they have one main chat show and recently they had Junior dos Santos on there and the guy is saying to ‘Cigano’: “MMA is easy if you use jiu-jitsu, why not use jiu-jitsu in your next fight?” What a stupid question, but that was good exposure on a big show.

When Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta held a big press conference in the best hotel in the city, two very wealthy guys who are very professional, everybody was looking at them as the faces of the sport and everybody was impressed. The impact of the UFC’s arrival there has taken the sport of MMA back amongst all the other sports in Brazil.

I am not on this bill because I fought recently in Las Vegas, but, of course, I have a dream to one day go back to Brazil and fight again. I am a professional athlete and I know the event in Rio will be huge, but I also know it is only the first event the new UFC will stage in my homeland and I am sure I will get to achieve my dream in the future.

Don’t get me wrong, I love to fight in Las Vegas, after all, it is my home now. My bed, my gym, my coaches are all in Vegas so that is where I like to fight most of all. But it would mean a lot to me to fight at the next event in Brazil. I want to fight on that card for sure.

There is so much talent in Brazil and one of my plans for the future, one day when I have much more money than I do now, is to go back and open up gyms in Brazil. To go back and find the next generation of champions there and perhaps give them the opportunity that my generation did not have. There just isn’t the investment in the sport like you have in the US right now, but I want to go back and help these guys to fight abroad and realize their potential. I know every day in Brazil we are losing out on great, talented fighters simply because there is no investment in them.

I am so proud to live in the United States because the quality of the tutors for the athletes here is amazing. People are really investing in the kids’ futures and they have great role models to aspire towards, while the gyms are proving a very safe environment for people of all ages and abilities to train MMA. The facilities here are excellent. That is my dream for Brazil. 

I hope the UFC going back to Brazil will open up a new wave of public attention and support for the sport of MMA. The media is finally once again all talking about MMA. The UFC brand will also inspire a lot of young fighters. They can see that the opportunity to make money and travel the world is there for them.

The city of Rio will also benefit greatly from the money this event will bring in.

They will make a lot of money. You only have to read the figures that are being

talked about in relation to the UFC going to New York to see that any city in the world which hosts a UFC event makes a lot of money.