Review18 June 2007
The Amazing Spider-Man
Anderson "Spider" Silva has sliced through the UFC like a ninja's sword. Can anyone stop the Brazilian killer?
"Will you walk into my parlour?" said the Spider to the Fly,
'Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy;
The way into my parlour is up a winding stair,
And I have many curious things to show you when you are there."
"Oh no, no," said the Fly, "to ask me is in vain;
For who goes up your winding stair can ne'er come down again."
UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva defies all the stereotypes associated with professional fighters: he's not covered in tattoos; his slender, athletic frame looks more appropriate for track and field events than cage fighting; and his quiet, unassuming demeanour belies the hunter that lurks within, waiting for the bell to sound to unchain the killer instinct lying dormant.
His long limbs earned him his nickname, The Spider, and he's every bit as deadly as the most venomous arachnid. His kicks are blurs that lash out in the time it takes to blink, his footwork is worthy of Willie Pep or Pernell Whitaker and his knee strikes are relentless engines of destruction. The Spider's web is his Muay Thai neck clinch and many fighters have found to their dismay that once Silva has got hold of them, it's time for the hurting to begin in earnest.
He's come a long way from his humble beginnings in Curitiba, the capital of the state of Paraná in Brazil. Sitting 3,000 feet above sea level, Curitiba is home to 1,700,000 people, three football clubs and some of the most dangerous fighters in the world.
SPINS A WEB ANY SIZE, CATCHES THIEVES JUST LIKE FLIES
Anderson Silva's childhood dream was to grow up to be a policeman like his stepfather but, once he tried his hands and feet at martial arts, his life took a different path. His first venture into the combative disciplines was studying Tae Kwon Do as a teenager before he joined the Nogushi Muay Thai Team. Under Nogushi's guidance, Silva had his first taste of professional combat, competing in roughly 40 Muay Thai fights, including two against his future training partner Jose Pele Landi-Jons.
According to Silva, they won one match apiece and he has said he only lost one of his Thai Boxing matches, suggesting that Landi-Jons was the only person to beat Silva under Thai rules. Silva's MMA career had rather a rocky start when he lost his first match against Luiz Azeredo by decision at Meca Vale Tudo 1 in May 2000. Azeredo was a member of Curitiba's famous fight team, Chute Boxe, home to Pride warriors Wanderlei Silva and Ninja and Shogun Rua, as well as Cage Rage's Cyborg Santos and the UFC's Gabriel Gonzaga. Anderson decided to join the group, comprising one of the most lethal fight teams ever assembled.
With their fighting style built around head trainer Rudimar Fedrigo's hyper-aggressive form of Muay Thai, the Chute Boxe fighters quickly earned a reputation as ferocious strikers with a do-or-die attitude. The Spider got his career on the right track with two wins at Meca Vale Tudo events before he made his Japanese debut, taking the unanimous decision win from the very experienced Tetsuji Kato in the Shooto promotion in March 2001.
Three months later, Silva challenged for the Shooto Middleweight Title held by the extremely dangerous Hayato Mach Sakurai, who was undefeated at the time and had stopped UFC and Pride veteran Frank Trigg with knee strikes the year before. Silva handed Sakurai the first loss of his MMA career, taking the Shooto belt by unanimous decision. It was The Spider's first world title, but it wouldn't be the last.
IS HE STRONG? LISTEN BUD: HE'S GOT RADIOACTIVE BLOOD
After one final outing at Meca Vale Tudo back in Brazil, Silva made his first appearance at the biggest fight show in the world on 23 June 2002, when he stopped The Brazilian Killer Alex Steibling (who had made a name for himself by demolishing Silva's countrymen) in the first round at Pride 21. Next, Silva took a unanimous decision win over tenacious pro wrestler Alexander Otsuka before scoring one of the biggest wins of his career at Pride 25 against Carlos Newton.
With his unique brand of Dragon Ball Ju Jitsu, Newton was one of the slickest submission artists in the game, with tap out victories over the likes of Erik Paulson (practically a walking encyclopaedia of submissions himself), Pat Miletich and Silva's teammate Landi-Jons. But halfway through the opening round of their fight, Newton changed level to shoot in on The Spider, only for Silva to catch him with a perfectly timed flying knee to the head. Newton hit the deck and Silva followed up with a burst of punches before the referee jumped in. It was the kind of finish that highlight reels are made of and Silva was riding high.
Perhaps it was over-confidence after knocking out Newton but, in his next contest, Silva fell victim to another grappler in the form of Japan's Daiju Takase. Coming into the ring Silva was on a nine-fight winning streak, while Takase had won only three of his last nine fights. However, the Japanese fighter took Silva down, kept him on the defensive on the canvas before catching him in a triangle choke to get the tapout. The loss was a huge upset and threatened to put the brakes on Silva's meteoric rise through the middleweight ranks.
Around this time, in 2003, Silva left Chute Boxe saying that he was unhappy with the management of his career and formed his own stable, Muay Thai Dream Team, with heavyweight Assuerio Silva. The Spider regrouped on his home turf with a win at Conquista Fight in Brazil, followed by a decision victory over one of the most experienced fighters in the history of the sport, Jeremy Horn (who had competed in almost 90 pro fights, with 70 wins) at Gladiator FC in South Korea. Then The Spider was given a chance to battle for another world title - this time, in London.
WEALTH AND FAME HE'S IGNORED; ACTION IS HIS REWARD
Cage Rage was just starting to establish itself on the international circuit in September 2004 when Silva arrived to fight for the vacant World Middleweight Title. The promotion had started out playing in small halls and South London nightclubs, but Cage Rage had recently moved to the Wembley Conference Centre and was starting to carve out a place for itself as the foremost event in Europe. And facing Silva for the title was elite British fighter Lee Murray, who had knocked out Jose Landi-Jons with one brutal right hand at Extreme Force, then surprised everyone by beating Jorge Rivera with an armbar at UFC 46.
Silva was fighting in Murray's city before a partisan crowd eager to see the Brazilian laid out by their hero, but The Spider had other plans. He picked Murray apart from the outset, dancing around the cage as Murray tried to corner him to unload his fabled right hand, but it was Silva's feet that landed over and over again. By the third round Murray had absorbed so many leg kicks that he was flat-footed as he tried vainly to find the range to connect with his elusive antagonist. Silva knocked Murray down with a high kick and, when the final bell rang, the Brazilian took the unanimous decision and his second World Title.
Back in Japan, Silva was undone at Pride Shockwave 2004 by another unorthodox grappler as Ryo Chonan caught him with a flying heel hook that seemed to defy all logic, but he returned to London to defend his Cage Rage belt with stoppages of the UFC's Jorge Rivera and journeyman Curtis Stout. Rivera was a heavy-handed slugger, but Silva seemed to enjoy toying with him; at one point in their match, Rivera grabbed Silva with one hand and punched him in the face with the other. Silva looked Rivera in the eyes - and smiled. Rivera's spirit crumpled and The Spider clamped on his deadly Muay Thai clinch, hitting Rivera with knees until he sank to the floor.
Kansas City's Curtis Stout had been on a tear through Cage Rage, knocking out every fighter he faced with his lethal left hook. Chute Boxe's Nilson De Castro had lasted just 15 seconds before Stout smashed him to the canvas so, when Stout challenged for Silva's belt, you could have been forgiven for betting on the American. On fight night he tried to take Silva down, only for the Brazilian to take top position and send Stout on an unscheduled trip to dreamland with a flurry of scorching right hands.
In January 2006 Silva suffered the fourth loss of his career at Rumble On The Rock in Hawaii, when he was disqualified after accidentally landing an illegal kick against Yushin Okami, but he returned to London in April to make his third Cage Rage title defence against Tony Fryklund. A tough scrapper and UFC veteran, Fryklund was outclassed from the opening bell. Silva danced in and out of range, picking his shots, until he stepped in and hit Fryklund with a rising reverse elbow strike that caught the challenger square on the chin. It was a devastating knockout and one of the most spectacular finishes of all time, made all the more memorable for Silva's highly unorthodox technique.
LIKE A STREAK OF LIGHT, HE ARRIVES JUST IN TIME
Finally, 19 fights into his career, Silva got the call from Dana White and was at last set to make his first appearance in the UFC. However, it wasn't clear how much faith White had in Silva, for The Spider's debut would not be on pay-per-view but was instead set for Ultimate Fight Night 5, one of the UFC's free events on Spike TV. His opponent was Chris Leben, the trash-talking, power-punching star of The Ultimate Fighter's first season.
Leben was coming off the biggest wins of his career, going undefeated in the UFC with five consecutive victories. The Crippler was his usual brash self prior to the match, suggesting that Silva go back to fighting in Japan if the competition was too tough in America, but 49 seconds after the bell rang, Leben's face met Silva's knee and he was out cold. Leben was stockier and stronger than Silva, but it hadn't been enough
For the rest of this feature, check out issue 14 of FIGHTING SPIRIT - available at WH Smith and all good retailers. (For US readers we are now carried at Borders, so check for local availability or click here to subscribe.)
"Will you walk into my parlour?" said the Spider to the Fly,
'Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy;
The way into my parlour is up a winding stair,
And I have many curious things to show you when you are there."
"Oh no, no," said the Fly, "to ask me is in vain;
For who goes up your winding stair can ne'er come down again."
UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva defies all the stereotypes associated with professional fighters: he's not covered in tattoos; his slender, athletic frame looks more appropriate for track and field events than cage fighting; and his quiet, unassuming demeanour belies the hunter that lurks within, waiting for the bell to sound to unchain the killer instinct lying dormant.
His long limbs earned him his nickname, The Spider, and he's every bit as deadly as the most venomous arachnid. His kicks are blurs that lash out in the time it takes to blink, his footwork is worthy of Willie Pep or Pernell Whitaker and his knee strikes are relentless engines of destruction. The Spider's web is his Muay Thai neck clinch and many fighters have found to their dismay that once Silva has got hold of them, it's time for the hurting to begin in earnest.
He's come a long way from his humble beginnings in Curitiba, the capital of the state of Paraná in Brazil. Sitting 3,000 feet above sea level, Curitiba is home to 1,700,000 people, three football clubs and some of the most dangerous fighters in the world.
SPINS A WEB ANY SIZE, CATCHES THIEVES JUST LIKE FLIES
Anderson Silva's childhood dream was to grow up to be a policeman like his stepfather but, once he tried his hands and feet at martial arts, his life took a different path. His first venture into the combative disciplines was studying Tae Kwon Do as a teenager before he joined the Nogushi Muay Thai Team. Under Nogushi's guidance, Silva had his first taste of professional combat, competing in roughly 40 Muay Thai fights, including two against his future training partner Jose Pele Landi-Jons.
According to Silva, they won one match apiece and he has said he only lost one of his Thai Boxing matches, suggesting that Landi-Jons was the only person to beat Silva under Thai rules. Silva's MMA career had rather a rocky start when he lost his first match against Luiz Azeredo by decision at Meca Vale Tudo 1 in May 2000. Azeredo was a member of Curitiba's famous fight team, Chute Boxe, home to Pride warriors Wanderlei Silva and Ninja and Shogun Rua, as well as Cage Rage's Cyborg Santos and the UFC's Gabriel Gonzaga. Anderson decided to join the group, comprising one of the most lethal fight teams ever assembled.
With their fighting style built around head trainer Rudimar Fedrigo's hyper-aggressive form of Muay Thai, the Chute Boxe fighters quickly earned a reputation as ferocious strikers with a do-or-die attitude. The Spider got his career on the right track with two wins at Meca Vale Tudo events before he made his Japanese debut, taking the unanimous decision win from the very experienced Tetsuji Kato in the Shooto promotion in March 2001.
Three months later, Silva challenged for the Shooto Middleweight Title held by the extremely dangerous Hayato Mach Sakurai, who was undefeated at the time and had stopped UFC and Pride veteran Frank Trigg with knee strikes the year before. Silva handed Sakurai the first loss of his MMA career, taking the Shooto belt by unanimous decision. It was The Spider's first world title, but it wouldn't be the last.
IS HE STRONG? LISTEN BUD: HE'S GOT RADIOACTIVE BLOOD
After one final outing at Meca Vale Tudo back in Brazil, Silva made his first appearance at the biggest fight show in the world on 23 June 2002, when he stopped The Brazilian Killer Alex Steibling (who had made a name for himself by demolishing Silva's countrymen) in the first round at Pride 21. Next, Silva took a unanimous decision win over tenacious pro wrestler Alexander Otsuka before scoring one of the biggest wins of his career at Pride 25 against Carlos Newton.
With his unique brand of Dragon Ball Ju Jitsu, Newton was one of the slickest submission artists in the game, with tap out victories over the likes of Erik Paulson (practically a walking encyclopaedia of submissions himself), Pat Miletich and Silva's teammate Landi-Jons. But halfway through the opening round of their fight, Newton changed level to shoot in on The Spider, only for Silva to catch him with a perfectly timed flying knee to the head. Newton hit the deck and Silva followed up with a burst of punches before the referee jumped in. It was the kind of finish that highlight reels are made of and Silva was riding high.
Perhaps it was over-confidence after knocking out Newton but, in his next contest, Silva fell victim to another grappler in the form of Japan's Daiju Takase. Coming into the ring Silva was on a nine-fight winning streak, while Takase had won only three of his last nine fights. However, the Japanese fighter took Silva down, kept him on the defensive on the canvas before catching him in a triangle choke to get the tapout. The loss was a huge upset and threatened to put the brakes on Silva's meteoric rise through the middleweight ranks.
Around this time, in 2003, Silva left Chute Boxe saying that he was unhappy with the management of his career and formed his own stable, Muay Thai Dream Team, with heavyweight Assuerio Silva. The Spider regrouped on his home turf with a win at Conquista Fight in Brazil, followed by a decision victory over one of the most experienced fighters in the history of the sport, Jeremy Horn (who had competed in almost 90 pro fights, with 70 wins) at Gladiator FC in South Korea. Then The Spider was given a chance to battle for another world title - this time, in London.
WEALTH AND FAME HE'S IGNORED; ACTION IS HIS REWARD
Cage Rage was just starting to establish itself on the international circuit in September 2004 when Silva arrived to fight for the vacant World Middleweight Title. The promotion had started out playing in small halls and South London nightclubs, but Cage Rage had recently moved to the Wembley Conference Centre and was starting to carve out a place for itself as the foremost event in Europe. And facing Silva for the title was elite British fighter Lee Murray, who had knocked out Jose Landi-Jons with one brutal right hand at Extreme Force, then surprised everyone by beating Jorge Rivera with an armbar at UFC 46.
Silva was fighting in Murray's city before a partisan crowd eager to see the Brazilian laid out by their hero, but The Spider had other plans. He picked Murray apart from the outset, dancing around the cage as Murray tried to corner him to unload his fabled right hand, but it was Silva's feet that landed over and over again. By the third round Murray had absorbed so many leg kicks that he was flat-footed as he tried vainly to find the range to connect with his elusive antagonist. Silva knocked Murray down with a high kick and, when the final bell rang, the Brazilian took the unanimous decision and his second World Title.
Back in Japan, Silva was undone at Pride Shockwave 2004 by another unorthodox grappler as Ryo Chonan caught him with a flying heel hook that seemed to defy all logic, but he returned to London to defend his Cage Rage belt with stoppages of the UFC's Jorge Rivera and journeyman Curtis Stout. Rivera was a heavy-handed slugger, but Silva seemed to enjoy toying with him; at one point in their match, Rivera grabbed Silva with one hand and punched him in the face with the other. Silva looked Rivera in the eyes - and smiled. Rivera's spirit crumpled and The Spider clamped on his deadly Muay Thai clinch, hitting Rivera with knees until he sank to the floor.
Kansas City's Curtis Stout had been on a tear through Cage Rage, knocking out every fighter he faced with his lethal left hook. Chute Boxe's Nilson De Castro had lasted just 15 seconds before Stout smashed him to the canvas so, when Stout challenged for Silva's belt, you could have been forgiven for betting on the American. On fight night he tried to take Silva down, only for the Brazilian to take top position and send Stout on an unscheduled trip to dreamland with a flurry of scorching right hands.
In January 2006 Silva suffered the fourth loss of his career at Rumble On The Rock in Hawaii, when he was disqualified after accidentally landing an illegal kick against Yushin Okami, but he returned to London in April to make his third Cage Rage title defence against Tony Fryklund. A tough scrapper and UFC veteran, Fryklund was outclassed from the opening bell. Silva danced in and out of range, picking his shots, until he stepped in and hit Fryklund with a rising reverse elbow strike that caught the challenger square on the chin. It was a devastating knockout and one of the most spectacular finishes of all time, made all the more memorable for Silva's highly unorthodox technique.
LIKE A STREAK OF LIGHT, HE ARRIVES JUST IN TIME
Finally, 19 fights into his career, Silva got the call from Dana White and was at last set to make his first appearance in the UFC. However, it wasn't clear how much faith White had in Silva, for The Spider's debut would not be on pay-per-view but was instead set for Ultimate Fight Night 5, one of the UFC's free events on Spike TV. His opponent was Chris Leben, the trash-talking, power-punching star of The Ultimate Fighter's first season.
Leben was coming off the biggest wins of his career, going undefeated in the UFC with five consecutive victories. The Crippler was his usual brash self prior to the match, suggesting that Silva go back to fighting in Japan if the competition was too tough in America, but 49 seconds after the bell rang, Leben's face met Silva's knee and he was out cold. Leben was stockier and stronger than Silva, but it hadn't been enough
For the rest of this feature, check out issue 14 of FIGHTING SPIRIT - available at WH Smith and all good retailers. (For US readers we are now carried at Borders, so check for local availability or click here to subscribe.)
From the Fighting Spirit Magazine archive. Byline: David West.