Despite being rocked by a serious knee injury, ‘The Axe Murderer’ refuses to allow his body to tell him when it’s time to follow Randy Couture out of the Octagon.
He’s back and training with an unrivaled determination sure to strike fear into the UFC’s middleweight elite.
As the morning sunlight spills over the Las Vegas horizon, the legendary Wanderlei Silva is already in his gym pounding away at the bags. Charged up, he screams with every blow.
He is currently training for his UFC 132 showdown with middleweight and super-slugger Chris Leben. It’s hard to tell that just under a year ago, ‘The Axe Murderer’ was sat in a hospital bed with his knee strapped up by a heavy-duty leg brace, tearfully reflecting on a punishing yet rewarding fight career.
He’d undergone surgery to correct the torn ligaments in his knee that had forced him to pull out, unwillingly, of the UFC 116 bout with Yoshihiro Akiyama. It was the fifth time he’d gone under the knife and many speculated whether the wily veteran would retire.
Yet, like all true champions, he’s back and refuses to say die.
An avid fan of Twitter, Wanderlei recently posted this message for his fans: “If you find a guy my age, my line of work, same number of fights as me, who doesn’t feel pain in the morning then call the police, he is dead.” And although the comment is spoken in jest, his words ring true. He may hold a record like few others, 33-10-1, yet being one of modern MMA’s genuine pioneers can prove costly.
At 34 he is still relatively young, though years spent fighting in bare-knuckle vale tudo matches, and perhaps more notably in Pride and the UFC, have aged the Brazilian dramatically – so much so that in 2009 he required reconstructive facial surgery.
“I had a problem with my nose. I broke it many times. I cut the top of my eyes so much. Now I don’t cut anymore in training, or maybe it’s just because I’ve started training with headgear,” he says.
You may think such punishment would alter his perspective on fighting, yet he still approaches the sport with the gung-ho attitude that fired him into prominence in the early 2000s with displays of ferocious intensity, stomping heads and breaking jaws.
“You’ve got to do everything right. You’ve got to keep going and not care about danger,” says Wanderlei. “On the day of the fight you got to step in the cage thinking, ‘I’m gonna kill the motherf**ker and become champion.’ It’s the simplest way to look at it. I still train with just about the same intensity.
Let’s just say someone got knocked out yesterday with a head kick. They were even wearing headgear and shinguards. It was a sweet shot. But it’s okay, train hard and fight easy!”
It’s this primal aggression that has become a trademark of Wanderlei’s exciting career. His legacy dates way back to when he was just a teenager. “I started training Muay Thai at 14 years old because I was a fat kid,” says the former Pride champ.
“At 14, my friends had started to get girls and I couldn’t because I was poor, ugly and fat. I looked at my brother and he was in shape from lifting weights and I thought, ‘I can do that.’ I started training and I managed to start getting girls.”
Being a paunchy teenager wasn’t the only problem Wanderlei had to contend with. Since the age of seven he had worked in his mother’s bar in his home city of Curitiba, Brazil. “We were very poor. I used to work in our bar with mom, while she was hand washing clothes,” he says.
“I worked from the age of seven till 22 at the same bar. I was already fighting in Pride, but still working in this bar. I had a break on Saturdays, 4pm till 6pm where my dad would take over. I would go and run, then run straight back; back to work until 2am.”
Living the high-life of a UFC superstar is somewhat of a contrast to the Brazilian mean streets. Yet Wanderlei always possessed a love for fighting and training. “I love the lifestyle you know. I’ve had that lifestyle pretty much my whole life,” he says. “I’ve been training for 20 years right now. For me, going to the gym, wrapping my hands, putting in my mouthpiece and getting in the cage is normal.
It’s also good to be in shape and it’s great because everyone respects the fighter. No other job in the world is going to do for me what fighting has given me in my life. I’m coming from nothing.
“I remember when I was 21 and I’d get in the cage, come second in the tournament and make 2000 bucks and I was really happy with that!
That moment in my life I didn’t have a proper job. My daughter Rafaela comes along and she’s one year old and I’m working in a part-time job at my mother’s bar and fighting for her to survive. There’s too much heartbreak in my history you know.”
While at first glance, Wanderlei appears violent, perhaps even brutish, he is also a very sensitive man, encompassing an altruistic nature born out of respect for the people who gave him a chance.
“When I was starting out, a very special man who is now my good friend gave me 700 dollars without even knowing me just because the guy who sponsored me told him I was a great fighter and a talent and had asked him for help.
This guy helped me without ever seeing me before. That was something I never forgot.”
Wanderlei’s voice begins to crack. It is clear he is very emotional, a hard sight for anyone when a man so tough begins to break.
“And that’s what I try to do today, to help others. I was helped many times in my life by many people. I owe my gratitude to many people.”
Although still heavily involved with fighting in the UFC, Wanderlei opened The Wand Training Center in 2008 to fulfil his dream of helping others. “Having my own gym is one of the best experiences of my life,” he says. “God gave me this talent so I must pass it on to others.
I didn’t make the gym to make money. Of course, we make money as it’s a business, but that money isn’t going to change my life.
What changes my life is helping others, helping the guys in the gym change theirs. Like losing weight like I did and building confidence.
“I had a mother come in and kindly ask me if her young boys could train with me. She said, ‘They’re very shy and don’t have any friends because they study at home.’ She told me they were getting bullied and we’re too afraid to go to school.
After two years training they had huge shoulders, they’d changed their hair and clothes, they we’re talking to everyone and we’re really cool boys. Now I struggle to pass their guards because they’re unbelievably flexible. Can you believe it?”
Wanderlei’s gym not only provides a great atmosphere for MMA novice’s to build their skills; it’s also where he trains to craft his deadly fighting style.
Boasting a high-altitude room and a multitude of advanced equipment, it provides a perfect arena for refining ‘The Axe Murderer.’ “I love to just get in there early and go at the boxing bags and skip.
They’re my favorite exercises but I enjoy everything.
You need to enjoy it all. I love running, lifting weight, plyometrics, I love it all.
Okay, sometimes it gets boring, like you do the movement a hundred times, but you keep your eye on the goal and that’s what’s so good about it.”
Before his knee surgery, Wanderlei had moved to middleweight and secured a ‘W’ against formidable Brit Michael Bisping.
Appointing a new strength and conditioning coach, he now looks to have found a new lease of life at 185lb.
“My new strength and conditioning coach, Vincent [also interviewed here], did a really good job with me. I felt strong all round my body.
I train now on my legs, I do a lot of jumps for explosivity.
I feel better than I did at 205lb. I train weights as normal but with more repetitions. Cutting weight is hard but it’s okay. It’s part of the job.”
Wanderlei is clear that fighting is just his job.
He holds a ‘get in there and get the work done’ attitude that is reflected in his tenacity to fight. So much so that before tearing his knee ligaments in training before his bout with Akiyama, he was already sporting broken ribs yet still seriously considering fighting through it.
“I’ve fought with similar injuries a lot of times in my career. I fought really really sick, even with a fever. I’ve fought when I should be in hospital.
It’s my job. I’m gonna fight,” he says.
“Though sometimes you have to know when to stop. When I injured my ribs and knee and had to pull out of that fight it was a really difficult decision for me. It was a real tough time in my life.
It was a lot of money lost and a lot of responsibility. A lot of guys wanted to watch me fight and I felt terrible to be out.
But now I’m back again. Life goes on you know.”
It’s evident that Wanderlei would rather spend more time in the cage than in hospital, but he believes it has made him mentally stronger.
“Too much medicine makes you crazy. You gotta control your mind in the bad moments. I feel aches all the time within my body. It’s happened because I’m an extreme fighter. When I walk in there’s always going to be blood, whether it’s mine or his,” he says.
With so much blood spilled over the years, how does the Brazilian brawler manage to stay motivated?
“My friends keep me motivated because they always give it to me.
I have the most fun in the world training with them,” he says. “Also it’s the thought that my training motivates others.
It’s heart-warming when guys walk up to me and tell me they started training because of me.”
It is this motivation that spurs Wanderlei forward, never willing to give up. “My next fight I’m gonna show everybody that you can come back again and again and again.
My life is nothing without fighting. I’m gonna be champion again, I can feel it. I’m gonna fight for everyone in the world. I love this show.
I love the crowd. I fight for the crowd.” Then he pauses.
A pensive expression suggests he’s deep in thought. Although he is adamant that fighting is “just his job,” it is clear that it means far more to him.
It is his education, his blood and his soul. And while his body bears many scars from years of brutal battle, he would not take a single one away; each one a reminder of how he has battled through adversity. Before he leaves to continue with his training, the question of retirement surfaces. “Retirement? No chance,” he laughs.
“I’m going to keep going for at least five more years. That’s my plan. I’ve still got time to play. I feel good. What am I gonna do if I quit. Fighting is all I know.”
While years of fighting may be beginning to take it’s toll on Wanderlei, he still possesses an unwavering tenacity and warrior-like spirit that will likely see him rise to the top again.
“Everybody in life goes through something hard, unexpected. And loses something,” he says.
“But it’s all about how you take it and bounce back. If you don’t learn anything from your suffering, you’ve suffered for free.”
Shoulder Press
The shoulders are utlized over and over again in MMA. They are an essential weapon on a warrior’s body.
The shoulder press exercise can produce great benefits for fighters.
It builds wide shoulders and improves deltoid size and strength symmetry. This can increase your power punch and speed up your sprawls. An imperative.
Dumbbell curls
Dumbbell curls are a great way to build up arm strength and pile on muscle. In an MMA fight, you need to be just as powerful with your non-leading arm as you are with your leading arm.
As dumbbell curls allow you to train each of your arms separately, this ensures your dominant arm doesn’t pick up the slack and overcompensate for your weaker arm, leading to disproportionate arm development and growth.
Carving the axe murderer
Vince Gumataotao is Wanderlei’s strength & conditioning coach.
Q: You started training with Wanderlei after his knee surgery, five months ago. What was it like training with him at the time?
A: “Man, there’s two shapes. There’s in shape, then there’s milkshake, and he was milkshake [laughs].
It was tough to see him like that because you could see the fire in his eyes and he knew he had that setback. I took before and after pictures and the pics are like night and day from what it is today.”
Q: What did you notice at first about him that was different?
A: “He was very attentive. With his background, the English was hard for him at the beginning but we got to know each other a lot better and we really developed that understanding.
He also had extreme determination to come back from his knee surgery. The endurance that he had building up to what he has now was unbelievable. Such stamina and agility. I’ve never seen a guy go for 10 minutes straight without even asking for a break.”
Q: What are you working on with Wanderlei right now?
A: “I’m a bodybuilder so I train Wanderlei like a bodybuilder.
We do every muscle group, just like I would do my body to prepare for a show. But what I’d do is take him in the cutting phase of a bodybuilder where everything is 15–25 reps back to back: drop sets, giant sets, super sets, where there’s really no rest in between so it really builds up his endurance for the first couple of months.
The last two months we do agility exercises to get his heart rate up then all that muscle he’s gained we start to shred. He’s in the best shape that he’s ever been.”
Q: Are there any exercises he excels at?
A: “He loves legs. It was kinda like baby steps because of the surgery. He’ll do 40lb barbell squat, 15 in, 15 out for four sets.
We’ll do leg extensions and leg presses. The most recent thing he got excited about is jump-ups; jumping up on a bench and landing with both feet then jumping down again.
That was a true test on how his knee was going to be. He was just ecstatic.”
Q: Conditioning wise, are you having him run a specific amount?
A: “Absolutely. We’ll do the rotation of certain stations for about seven minutes, which keeps his heart rate up to about 170bpm.
Throughout the whole two hours we’re working out. That’s a lot of conditioning right there. He does laps in between.
I’ll tell him to run two laps in between every other set. The running is definitely in there. He probably hasn’t had this in the past but I stretch him 30–40 minutes before the workout.
I’m literally sweating from it because he’s a big guy but we do that
every day.”
Q: Have you done anything with his diet?
A: “Yes. I designed a very high-protein low-carb diet. Then we’ll change it up again as his fight with Leben gets close.
That’s where I throw in broccoli and asparagus; I take out the brown rice, I put in the fish; I take out the chicken, I put in the steak. It all comes into play during the last six weeks towards the fight.”
Q: What was his diet like when you first started training with him?
A: “He never told me but you could tell it wasn’t great. I’d come into work and be like, ‘Dude, you look kinda puffy. Lot of sodium last night huh?’ And he’ll kinda admit he ate fast food.
Then I’m like, ‘Ice cream, I know you’ve been eating that too,’ and his wife will tell me he was eating a lot of candy last night. I’m like, ‘Wanderlei, you cannot lie to me, I’ve been doing this for so long.
I can touch your skin and tell that you drank soda all yesterday rather than water.’ He’s become a believer on what I say to him. That took him a while but now he’s on board.”
Q: What would a typical diet plan be for him?
A: “He eats 60g of oatmeal in the morning, six egg whites, two toast and one fruit only. Then two shakes in between every meal.
Two hours later a 50g low-carb, low-fat, high-protein shake. Then two hours later he has brown rice, chicken breast and even fish or veggies. It’s all very low fat.
Everything is grilled, baked, or boiled. Then he’ll have a shake again two hours later. That way every two hours his metabolism is constantly speeding up and everything is burning throughout the day. His last meal is no carbs, just salad and fish. Fish because it digests fast and it’ll make him hungry and his metabolism will speed up.
His last shake is casein protein before bed. It’s a time-release protein so his body is still metabolizing while he sleeps.”
Q: What would be a standard workout for Wanderlei?
A: “First, a 40-minute stretch. We’ll stretch with the bands and then I’ll set him up through a five-station workout and then we start timing him. In the beginning I was training him like a bodybuilder to build good muscle on him.
For example, on Monday we’d do chest and triceps. On Tuesday we’d do back and biceps, just like a bodybuilder would do. As we get closer to the fight we shred the muscle so we’ll instead do all five muscle groups in one day, we’ll just circuit all the way round.”
Vitor Vianna is Wanderlei’s BJJ Coach
Q: How long have you been training Wanderlei in jiu-jitsu?
Vitor: “I came to Las Vegas to train Wanderlei two years ago.”
Q: How did you get the job training Wanderlei?
A: “When he opened the gym he asked for Damian Maia at first but then he remembered seeing me fight three times in Brazil so he gave me the call and here I am. It’s a dream for me.”
Q: What was it like to train with him at first?
A: “It was surprising for me at the beginning because he was already very good on the ground and I didn’t expect it. He had a good coach before me in Brazil.
If you train easy against him he will submit you. He’s very strong. There were of course things I needed to fix. He needed to believe in himself more on the ground and I try to repeat the best positions for him and work a lot of escapes. I think he can utilize his jiu-jitsu more in
his fights.”
Q: Do you notice a difference in him now fighting at 185lb than when he was at 205lb?
A: “He’s much faster. I think it’s the perfect weight for him. He’s still as strong as he was at 205lb.”
Q: How would you describe Wanderlei as an MMA fighter?
A: “He’s a legend. I tell everybody he’s born to fight. He doesn’t care who he’s gonna fight. He just gets in there and does it. He’s been doing it for a long time and he has a good chance to rise to the top again.”
Q: What have you learned from training with Wanderlei?
A: “I learned that you need to do your best in your training and when you fight. When you train hard, your fight is gonna be easy. He trains harder than anyone in the gym. He’s first in, last to finish. He loves it so much.”
Q: Is it different coaching Wanderlei than others?
A: “Yes, because he always has the big fights and it’s special when you teach him something that he uses in the fight like an escape and you think, ‘Oh man, I showed him this.’”
Q: What is Wanderlei like as a man?
A: “He’s a good guy and everybody in the gym loves and respects him. He’s a very special person.”
Rafael Cordeiro is Wanderlei’s striking coach
Q: How long have you been working with Wanderlei?
Rafael: “I started with Wanderlei over 20 years ago when he was just 13 years old. He was a good, hardworking kid with a lot of heart.
I trained him up for his first tournament as a teenager. After that I never looked back. I started training him at his gym here in Las Vegas two years ago.
“I made big changes to his game and now I think he’s got a great game. He’s an amazing fighter. We work a lot of different things today. We work a lot of agility training now he’s dropped to 185lb.”
Q: Has he always been a hard worker?
A: “All the time, he always has shown a lot of heart. He never took a step back and always pushed through pain.”
Q: What sets Wanderlei apart from the rest of the guys in the gym?
A: “He has double the heart of anyone else and he never refuses to stop. He’s also fought a lot of guys who are much bigger than him and won and that just shows his heart. He is a born winner and never gives up.”
Q: Is Wanderlei a leader?
A: “Yes of course. He’s a miracle for the next generation who can inspire everybody, even old-school fighters. I’m one of his biggest fans.
I’ve followed him for years and every time I go to watch him fight he’s going to ‘kill or die.’ That is simply the way he is built. It’s in his genes. He is going in there to fight until he can fight now more.”
Q: What’s the difference with Wanderlei now he’s older?
A: “Today he has more experience. All these fights have made him stronger and he never stops training, which makes a difference. His body has conditioned to it. He can still hang with the new generation.
To him, nothing’s changed. He’s been training really hard with Fabricio Werdum who weighs 250lb, yet to Wanderlei he’s the same size.
He has no fear and he’s a complete professional who still loves to go hard.”
Q: Chris Leben is known for having a lot of heart and being a very tough opponent. What do you think of Leben?
A: “Wanderlei asked for this fight because he likes his style. Leben has a lot of heart but Wanderlei picked this fight for his fans.
He said to me, ‘I want a blood fight!’ so he respects Leben a lot and knows he can have a great fight with him. He thinks it’s a great opportunity to show the world what he can do.
He wants to fight five more years but most importantly, he wants to fight happy. This camp’s awesome. Everyday is a war.”
Q: What’s special about his training for Chris Leben and his career going forward?
A: “At the moment we’re focusing on his defense a lot, then we’ll concentrate on his countering and attack. We’re training for self-preservation. It’s important that Leben doesn’t get any big shots on him.”
Q: Do you remember Wanderlei getting the tattoo on the back of his head?
A: “Ha, yes! I remember him turning up to the gym with it and I said, ‘Man, are you crazy?’ That was about 15 years ago. Then I went and got one a week later!”
Q: What is Wanderlei best at in the gym?
A: “He has amazing power in his punch and kicks. He blasts the pads and hits like a heavyweight.”
Q: You worked with Wanderlei at Chute Boxe which is notorious for having very hard and aggressive training. As he’s gotten older, has that changed at his gym now?
A: “We still train hard but we follow the evolution of the sport. You can’t just go in all guns blazing anymore. You need to think and be clever.
You need a gameplan. The fight today is still a war but it’s much more tactical.”
Q: What do you think Wanderlei’s greatest moment is?
A: “When he first won his first Pride GP tournament in Japan.
That was the greatest moment because everybody saw how good he was and he put all his trainers at the top.”
Q: Wanderlei gives you a lot of respect. What has he meant to you as a person?
A: “We have a great relationship, not just inside the gym but outside. He’s like a younger brother. Inside the gym though it’s master and student. I respect him a lot. We grew up together and it’s easy to work with people who we really trust. It makes a difference.”
Q: Would you rather Wanderlei win or put on an exciting fight?
“I know Wanderlei himself would rather put on an exciting fight.
When he fought the second time against Ricardo Arona, he was so happy because the fans were happy. He doesn’t fight for himself, he fights for them. It’s like soccer where the fans are devoted to one team; Wanderlei is that team and he wants to perform for them.
He’s always gonna move forward and fight which is very entertaining but we’re focusing on his defense so he can do that yet not be as exposed. For me, he’s the best fighter ever because he has so much heart and never gives up.”
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