Issue 213

January 2025

Before championship belts were on the line, the world's greatest fighters were locked in their own battles. Isaac Barnett delves into the gritty and inspiring MMA origin stories that forged these warriors into the legends they are today. 

ANDERSON SILVA - WEAVING THE WEB

Anderson da Silva was born in Sau Paulo, Brazil, on April 14, 1975. He was one of four siblings in an environment so stricken with poverty that he and his brother had to move out and live with his family in Curitiba. His uncle was in the police force, fighting gang violence and drug trafficking, which allowed Silva a home life with more financial stability until his parents could resolve their economic troubles. Although Silva's life wasn't easy, he certainly made the most of it. 

“My childhood was super mellow,” he said in the documentary about his life, Like Water. “I had no problems. The truth, actually, I was pretty hyper and training martial arts a lot.”

And the source of his cage name, ‘The Spider?’ As a kid, he loved Bruce Lee movies and comic books, and Spiderman was his favorite superhero. His martial arts journey began with Capoeira, but he was too poor to attend sessions and just studied the art form. Eventually, his financial situation improved enough for him to pay for a class, and because of his time watching, he quickly developed an accelerated skill set. As you might expect, he wasn’t satisfied, so he began expanding his obsession into other disciplines. 

“I trained capoeira and jiu-jitsu with some friends,” he said. “I have always liked boxing, taekwondo, and Muay Thai. I never imagined that I would go on to be a fighter like I am today. Things just happened in a very natural way.”

When he was 17, he met his future wife. They had their first child four years later, and he worked at McDonald's to support his new family. He had plenty of fight talent at this point, so he went all in and began training full-time while working to provide his child with a better life than he’d had. His professional debut was in 1997, at 22, and he won two fights the same night, both first-round finishes. It took three years before he fought again, which he lost via decision. This lit a fire in Silva’s belly, and he went on a nine-fight win streak while earning his ticket into Pride FC, where he began to make a living from MMA.

FEDOR EMELIANENKO - THE PIONEER 

Fedor Vladimirovich Emelianenko was born September 28, 1976, in Rubizhne, Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine, which the Soviet Union occupied. Two years after his birth, his family moved in Russian territory to Stary Oskol, Belgorod, where he would spend the rest of his childhood. He had a typical upbringing but was by no means privileged. His father was a welder, and his mother was a teacher, so his family had a small apartment with a drying room, kitchen, and bathroom, which they shared with their neighbors. Christianity and discipline were traits his father instilled in all his children. To this end, Emelianenko was even known to bring priests to his fights during his career so that he could pray during fight week. 

Emelianenko’s combat sports journey began when he was 10, starting with sambo and judo. Vasily Ivanovich Gavrilov was his first coach, and he taught his students in a bomb shelter. And while Emelianenko lacked natural talent but started to impress two years into his training through hard work and will to win. The devotion to training continued throughout his education before he joined a trade school in 1991. In 1994, he graduated with honors as an electrician and joined the Russian military. After serving as a military firefighter, he joined the tank division for the remainder of his service, continuing to train in judo and sambo. After he finished his service, he was granted the Master of Sport title in both judo and sambo, which led to his joining the Russian National Judo Team and winning an international judo tournament that same year. Even though he was incredibly successful in these disciplines, it didn’t pay his bills. At this point, he decided to gamble with a transition into MMA, which involved significant personal risk. 

Speaking on a regional channel of Stary Oskol in 2007, Emelianenko said: “I had significant doubts because I was a member of the national judo and sambo team. It was difficult to decide to leave it and to go somewhere for an unknown reason without having a big name in the sport. It wasn’t about doubt for me, more fear of the future.”

Ultimately, the gamble paid off, and he is now regarded as a pioneer and one of the greatest martial artists the sport has ever known.

Credit: Dolly Clew/Cage Warriors

MOLLY MCCANN - FROM SUBS TO SUBMISSIONS

Molly Maria McCann was born in Liverpool, England, on May 4, 1990. She has a Catholic Irish background, thanks to her grandmother, who migrated from Ireland to Liverpool, where McCann has lived her entire life. Home life was complicated from a young age. She lived in the Norris Green area, well known for being a rough council housing area of Liverpool with a lot of crime and poverty. The area's reputation found itself in McCann’s home, where she and her sisters were exposed to her parents' struggles with addiction. Eventually, her grandmother took over raising her and her sisters.  

Speaking on Paddy Holohan's No Shame Podcast, McCann said: “There were times when I would come down the stairs and see empty bottles of ale on the floor. There would be this and that in the kitchen, people asleep, and I remember just thinking, f*ck this. I can’t be arsed to be around this. I just don’t like it.”

Her father was absent at this point, and her mother was admitted to a rehab center where she became sober and took control of her life. Finding sobriety, her mother encouraged McCann to join sports, so she began karate. At first, she enjoyed it, but after a while, she thought it was silly and wanted a more challenging sport. When she turned 12, she began training in Thai kickboxing. Her coach drilled her with footwork routines, which she hated at the time, but she is now grateful for them because she believes they are a factor in her excellent footwork in the octagon today. She eventually got bored and decided to box. At first, she had difficulty getting accepted into a gym because it was rare to have girls boxing.

Once accepted into a gym, she continued to box and had a few amateur fights until she was 16. Although she was a devoted Everton FC fan, she was offered the opportunity to play professional football for Liverpool FC’s women's team. She was a midfielder who played for five years until she was 21, when a ligament injury ended her career. After her injury, she worked various jobs as a physical therapist, call center operator, and Subway server, where she earned her nickname, ‘The Meatball.’ Boxing got put on the back burner because there weren’t any financial pathways from it, so she decided to try her hand at MMA, with Ronda Rousey being one of her inspirations. She quickly turned professional and amassed a record of 7-1, claiming both the Shock N' Awe Flyweight Championship and the Cage Warriors Women's Flyweight Championship before the call came from the UFC to make her dream debut in Liverpool in 2018. From the chaos of her childhood home to the roar of an arena packed with fans, Molly McCann's journey wasn’t just about fighting - it was about rising, refusing to be defined by her circumstances, and proving that even from the roughest streets, champions are made.