Recently in Anderson Silva Category

from the Los Angeles Times:
Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White told The Times his organization has struck verbal deals for Anderson Silva to defend his middleweight championship against Vitor Belfort on Jan. 2 in Las Vegas.

Belfort, a former UFC champion, returned to the octagon Saturday to defeat former champion Rich Franklin in Dallas.

Silva has emerged as the most elite fighter in the UFC, most recently disposing of former light-heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin.

Here's an excerpt from John Morgan's story on Anderson Silva on mmajunkie.com:
While Silva has always said defending the middleweight title is of utmost importance to him, the Brazilian suggested he may be willing to continue a run at light heavyweight - despite the difficulties of fighting bigger men.

"It's a big problem, because these guys at 205 (pounds) are a lot bigger than me," Silva said. "But I want to fight against the best. Whoever the best is at the time, that's who I want to fight."

Silva is now an astounding 10-0 in the UFC, and his dominance in two divisions warrants real consideration for the dangerous striker as the world's top pound-for-pound fighter.

Ted: Notice Silva didn't say "I want to fight against the best, but not my close buddy Lyoto." OK, so we know that Silva and Lyoto Machida, UFC's light-heavyweight champ, have said they will not fight each other. They train together, although I did not see Machida in attendence at Silva's training camp for last night's fight.

As to who would win, man, I'm just shaking my head right now.

With Roy Jones Jr., who reportedly was a guest of Anderson Silva. Silva has said he wants to box Jones after his UFC contract is done.

from mmajunkie.com:
MAIN CARD

Champ B.J. Penn (155) vs. Kenny Florian (155)
Champ Anderson Silva (205) vs. Forrest Griffin (205)
Ricardo Almeida (185) vs. Kendall Grove (185.5)
Josh Neer (155.5) vs. Kurt Pellegrino (154.5)
Johny Hendricks (171) vs. Amir Sadollah (166.5)
PRELIMINARY CARD

Shane Nelson (156) vs. Aaron Riley (154)
John Howard (169.5) vs. Tamdan McCrory (170)
Thales Leites (185) vs. Alessio Sakara (185.5)
Dan Cramer (169.5) vs. Matthew Riddle (170)
George Roop (154) vs. George Sotiropoulos (155)
Jesse Lennox (171) vs. Danillo Villefort (170.25)

Originally posted on sherdog.com

Griffin is crazy from way back, even in high school.

Forrest Griffin's got a shot - a decent shot - at beating Anderson Silva at their fight at UFC 101 on Aug. 8 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia. ... Aw heck, I'm gonna get crazy here - dammit, he's gonna do it! Who's with me? Here's why I think so:

- Forrest is used to fighting at 205; Silva is not. Yeah, Silva made the jump once before, but it appeared as though he put on mostly water weight or fat rather than muscle to get up to 205 from his usual 185. Of course, that didn't matter 'cause he knocked out James Irvin in a matter of seconds. We might see Silva's cardio start to fail from the extra weight if Forrest can take him into the third round.

- In connection with the first point, Forrest is bigger than Silva, although not by much. Forrest is listed at 6'3", whereas Anderson Silva is 6'2". That's only an inch, but it could be a big difference because Silva is used to looking down on opponents, not eye-to-eye or maybe up a little. Forrest reportedly walks into the cage around 220 or so, so he'll defnitely have a weight advantage over Silva, who is bulking up to 205, so I don't expect him to walk into the cage much heavier than that.

- The biggest factor in this fight is Forrest's heart. The guy's got tons of it. He's like the Chuck Wepner (the boxer on whom Stallone based Rocky) or even Chuck Cecil (NFL safety who used to smash his nose in nearly every game because of how hard he hit) of the UFC - a guy who doesn't care that he bleeds in every fight, who may not be technically the most proficient fighter out there, but more than makes up for it by giving it his all every damn time. Silva, on the other hand, was reportedly matched up with Forrest because of his last two fights, which were, putting it mildly, crappy. Dana White knew Forrest would push Silva, basically force him to fight. Fans have wondered if Silva's heart is still in the game, or if he's just coasting until the end of his UFC contract, so he can have a boxing match with his idol, Roy Jones Jr.

None of this is to take away from Silva. The factors I listed might not amount to anything in this fight. Silva's a great fighter and could end the fight with one punch, kick, elbow or knee. But you just can't count Forrest out. Most people said he wouldn't beat Shogun Rua, but he did, with an RNC. Most people didn't think he could take the title from Rampage, but he did, with devastating leg kicks and tight ground control.

I called up Greg Sirb, executive director of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission, this afternoon, with several questions on my mind:

- The UFC traditionally has weigh-ins the day before their events. A by-product of this is that fighters are able to "diet-down" i.e., come in as shredded as they can, hit the maximum weight allowed in their weight class on the mark, and then gain back 10-15 pounds of water weight before their respective fights.

As you probably know, the UFC has announced that UFC 101 will be held at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia on Aug. 8. I asked Sirb - because as I understand it, the state athlectic commission has same day weigh-ins - what would be done in the UFC's case.

"We're going to be discussing that over the next week or two," he said, referring to the himself and the state athletic commission.

On MMA in Pennsylvania in general, Sirb said things are ging great, with no major problems after several shows. Iron Will Fighting, an event that was held in Johnstown recently, drew 3,400 attendees. Respect is Earned's first event, held in Oaks (just outside Philly) had 1,200 spectators, Sirb said.

The next event, this weekend in Reading, Pain on Penn Street, is an MMA-boxing event. When Ia sked what he thought of hybrid events, Sirb said, "We'll see, it might work." I said asked him if he thought, as others have said, that boxing is trying to bring itself up by catching on to MMA's popularity, he said, "Not at all, I think they can both coexist."

Former friends, now enemies: W. Silva and A. Silva

from Fighters Only:
Wanderlei Silva has told Anderson Silva to put his money where is mouth is ahead of his UFC 99 fight with Rich Franklin.

The two Silvas have had a war of words outside the Octagon since Anderson stated his thoughts about Wanderlei dropping to the 185lbs category on Sensei SporTV, calling the move "pretentious". Since then both have created a tough environment and speculation about a match has grown as they fire verbally at one another.

The latest episode of the series was the announcement of an Anderson Silva/Rich Franklin camp ahead of Franklin's fight with Wanderlei at UFC 99.

The Axe Murderer today shot back: "If Anderson believes in Franklin so much, bet U$ 50,000 and let's see who takes the money".

Thanks to profighting-fans.com for the pics.

For those who don't know, Anderson Silva and Wanderlei Silva were longtime teammates on the Brazilian MMA team known as Chute Boxe. Apparently, they were cool with each other for many years, but now that Wanderlei has announced he will be moving down to middleweight, where A. Silva is king, there's reportedly some bad blood brewing. Of course, the other interesting thing is that A. Silva beat Franklin twice - really, destroyed him twice _ the first time taking Franklin's UFC middleweight belt.

By John Morgan, mmajunkie:
Boxing legend Roy Jones Jr. continues to strike out in a search for potential homes for a mixed martial arts debut.

After UFC President Dana White recently declined on promoting a potential bout between his middleweight champion Anderson Silva and Jones Jr., Showtime Senior Vice President Ken Hershman today called a Strikeforce bout between the boxer and Nick Diaz a "very long shot."

After his April 11 win over Frank Shamrock, Diaz had challenged Jones Jr. to a boxing-rules match. Jones Jr. has since expressed his willingness to compete under full MMA rules.

"I get a Roy Jones call once a week pitching me things," Hershman said on today's Strikeforce media call. "[A fight between Diaz and Jones Jr.] would be a very long shot of ever happening."

from mmajunkie.com:
While an anticipated main event between UFC lightweight champion B.J. Penn and challenger Kenny Florian has not yet been made official, seven other bouts were announced by the organization today.

In addition to several previously reported matchups, the UFC also announced a middleweight contest between Ricardo Almeida (10-3 MMA, 3-3 UFC) vs. Kendall Grove (10-5 MMA, 5-2 UFC), and a lightweight showdown between Rob Emerson (8-7 MMA, 2-1 UFC) and George Sotiropoulus (9-2 MMA, 2-0 UFC.

UFC 101 takes place Aug. 8 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia.

Jon Anik & Co. talk about quadraplegic Kyle Maynard's MMA debut and the upcoming Anderson Silva vs. Forrest Griffin fight at UFC 101.

by Thomas Gerbasi, ufc.com:
UFC is coming to Philadelphia for the first time on Saturday, August 8th, and its bringing the big guns for UFC 101, as BJ Penn defends his UFC lightweight crown for the second time against number one contender Kenny Florian, and UFC middleweight boss Anderson Silva jumps back to the 205-pound weight class to take on former light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin.

Tickets for UFC 101, which will take place at Philadelphia's Wachovia Center, will go on sale shortly. Stay tuned for further details.

Dana White talks with Steve Cofield about the debacle that was UFC 97's main event. Which leads to this gem from sherdog:

Anderson Silva will meet Forrest Griffin in a light heavyweight co-main event at UFC 101 on Aug. 8 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia.

MMABay.com was the first Web site to report the matchup Tuesday. UFC President Dana White confirmed the bout with Yahoo Sports shortly after.

The rivalry between former Chute Boxe teammates heats up. Here's what happened before this video.

by Tom Hamlin - MMAWeekly.com
UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans can relate to middleweight champion Anderson Silva, if it's the case that the record-setting fighter is bored with his job.

"I've been out there and felt like not even fighting," he told MMAWeekly.com. "You never know who's going to show up on fight day. You go out there, and that night, you just don't feel it. Sometimes you just walk into the arena, and you're like, 'you know what, man? Today, I just don't feel like it. I don't feel like I got that same spring.' It just happens like that. Maybe he just woke up and felt like he was rhyming slow that day."

by Marcelo Alonso for sherdog.com :
Saturday, 5:00 a.m. ET: Anderson Silva discussed former teammate Wanderlei Silva's move to 185 pounds last week, calling it "pretentious." Wanderlei hasn't taken too kindly to Anderson's remarks.

"I thought it was excellent being quoted by the champion without having had a fight in (Anderson's) division," Wanderlei told Sherdog.com. "It's a sign that I'm already bothering him. Nobody kicks a tree that is not able to give fruits."

Wanderlei also criticized Anderson for discussing Chute Boxe training sessions.

Thanks to Fightticker.com:
MAIN CARD

Anderson Silva (182) vs. Thales Leites (185)
Chuck Liddell (206) vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua (206)
Cheick Kongo (232) vs. Antoni Hardonk (249)
Luis Cane (206) vs. Steve Cantwell (205)
Krzysztof Soszynski (204) vs. Brian Stann (206)
PRELIMINARY CARD

Vinicius Magalhaes (204) vs. Eliot Marshall (205)
Xavier Foupa-Pokam (185) vs. Denis Kang (185)
Jason MacDonald (186) vs. Nate Quarry (186)
Ed Herman (186) vs. David Loiseau (185)
David Bielkheden (157) vs. Mark Bocek (154)
Ryo Chonan (171) vs. T.J. Grant (169)
Sam Stout (155) vs. Matt Wiman (155)

Could we see this before A. Silva retires? For now, we have Anderson Silva taking on Thales Leites at UFC 97 and Wanderlei Silva fighting Rich Franklin at UFC 99.

By Marcelo Alonso, sherdog.com:
They have the same surname, grew up in the same Brazilian city and trained together for years at Chute Boxe. But things have changed, and destiny has put Wanderlei Silva and Anderson Silva on different sides.

"I always helped Wanderlei in training," Anderson explained in a November 2007 interview with Tatame magazine. "We were really close."

Anderson eventually left Chute Boxe, though, and in the Tatame interview he said that the team's coach, Rudimar Fedrigo, forbid him from fighting in Pride, where Wanderlei was a champion.

"Wanderlei didn't say anything to help me," Anderson said. "He even knew that I had four children to raise. If it were not for 'Minotauro' putting pressure and bringing me to Pride, I would certainly be retired."

Here's the finish from the Nate Marquardt-Wilson Gouveia fight at UFC 95. Marquardt shows some amazing and varied striking here. After seeing this, I'm interested in seeing a re-match between him and current 185-pound champ Anderson Silva,

By Eduardo Ferreira, tatame.com:
After a lot of rumors, the Nova União leader, André Pederneiras, confirmed with exclusivity to TATAME.com that the fight between Thales Leites and Anderson Silva is already set for the middleweight belt. The fight will happen at UFC 97, which takes places in Canadá at April 18th. "Thales already signed the contract and the fight happens at April 18th", guarantees Pederneiras. With five wins and only one loss at UFC's octagon, Thales is happy with the good news.

"That's something I'm after for a long time and now is finally happening. I'll do my best for the belt. Anderson is phenomenal and fought some of the best guys and made them look like nothing, won fast and easy. But the whole thing is training", said Thales, who imagines how the fight would be. "I think it'd be a fight where I'll try to work on the short distance and take him down, and he'd try to strike with me, but I won't avoid striking and I believe he won't avoid the ground... It'd be a Muay Thai vs Jiu-Jitsu fight", said Thales.

from strikeforceusa.net:
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Strikeforce World Middleweight (185 lb. limit) Champion, Cung Le, will seize the spotlight during an all-new "Strikeforce on NBC" episode on Saturday night.

The special, 30-minute program, devoted entirely to the one-of-a-kind knockout artist, will showcase Le's stoppages of Mike Altman and "Mr. Unbreakable" Brian Warren and will revisit his crushing knockouts of "The Ultimate Fighter" season three veteran, Sam "The Squeeze" Morgan, and Tony "The Freak" Fryklund.

Also included in the show is a feature segment that touches on the personal life of Le, who fled a war-torn Vietnam, just days before the fall of Saigon, as a baby in his mother's arms in 1975.

...Not to mention Jackson and Herring. But I think the real star is Hector Echavarria, an Argentinian karate and taekwondo world champ, whose been starring in movies since 1986. His Wikipedia entry says that he "has also trained and taught martial arts to Mixed Martial Arts super stars such as Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Cheik Kongo, and currently Hector is working with BJ Penn."

Here's some new stuff from the kings of MMA:

The Web site is up for UFC 92, which airs Dec. 27 and has three main events: Nogueira vs. Mir, Griffin vs. Evans and W. Silva vs. Jackson. See it here.

Also, several of the major MMA Web sites/blogs are reporting that the battle of two undefeated LHWs, Lyoto Machida vs. Thiago Silva, has been rescheduled for UFC 94 on Jan. 31.

In addition, a possible match-up for UFC 95 on Feb. 21 is Anderson Silva vs. Chuck Liddell.

Despite losing a to UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva via third round TKO caused by a potentially severe knee injury, Patrick Cote appeared to be in good spirits following UFC 90 this past Saturday.

"I think I proved to everyone that this guy (Silva) is not unbeatable," Cote stated during a video interview with MMACanada.net. "I think I f--- him up really bad."

Despite losing on two of the three judges' scorecards in round one and then losing on all three in round two, Cote was happy with his performance during the fight.

"I think I did a good job," Cote told MMA Canada. "I f--- my knee in the middle of the second round. In the middle of the second round I (was fighting) on one leg. One leg... I received a lot of good comments that I did great against Anderson Silva. I think I'm the first guy in the UFC to make three rounds with Anderson Silva."

What a disappointment.

That pretty much sums it up, but I have a few more words, I guess.
Iron-chinned Candian Patrick Cote challenged Anderson Silva for his middleweight championship and lasted more than two rounds with the feared Brazilian striker - something not many can boast of - before succumbing to a blown-out knee.

Silva was definitely ahead on points, but seemed a little frustrated by Cote's tight, conservative boxing. Cote appeared to be sticking to his game plan - aggressive, but not overextending himself, with good defense, good head movement.

Silva, in response, danced around a bit, at one point did a little Ali shuffle - which Cote mimicked - and then at another point, started doing some kung-fu thing with his hands. It seemed he found Cote to be a bit of a riddle. That said, when he did strike, he did so with his usual accuracy, cracking Cote with a knee that opened up a vertical cut on the brow.

Another time, Silva was in Cote's guard, and had the Canadian against the fence, but then surprisingly pulled out and stood up, appearing to be frustrated once again. Silva's a BJJ black belt and we've seen him submit some tough guys in the UFC - it just didn't make sense that he'd play it safe with a guy like Cote, who's not exactly known for his ground game.

When the ref ordered Cote to stand, Silva extended his hand to try to help Cote up, and Cote wisely refused, probably fearing a sucker-punch. In fairness, Silva seems to be an honorable man, but this is a fight - I wouldn't trust him either. You can shake hands or help each up AFTER the fight.

Some on the Internet have written it was a different Silva we were seeing in this fight. I couldn't help but think that too. Either he was giving the heavy-handed Cote a lot of respect, or maybe his head wasn't in it. He recently announced he plans to retire after his UFC contract expires, so it's possible that was weighing on his mind.

All right, so in third round, Cote's knee blows out, and he's clearly bummed, and Silva's pissed too. Cote's got a long road of rehab ahead of him, but my one hope is he gets back in shape in time to fight Silva again, before Silva's five remaining fights on his contract are up. Why? 'Cause Cote gave Silva a tough challenge. Not saying he would've won, but he absorbed some tough shots from Silva and dished a few out; win or lose, the fight had potential.

Just watched the UFC 90 weigh-ins on ufc.com. I joined it in progress, so I didn't see all of it, but here are some of the highlights:

- Josh Burkman was over the welterweight limit at 173; that's by two pounds, even with the 1-pound allowance. Man, did he look pissed. I'll keep you posted to see what happens, whether they'll still have the fight or not.

- Spencer Fisher let out a Ric Flair-like "Whoo!" when he got on the scale. He looked about four or five inches shorter than opponent Shannon Gugerty when they faced off.

- Missing was ring girl Edith Larente (or Labelle, whichever you prefer). I don't get the whole "horse-face" thing - I think she is a total babe, the face included. Arianny was there, so that we had that goin' for us.

- Patrick Cote came in all smiles, his hat cocked sideways, making the sign of the belt around his waist like pro wrestlers do. He weighed in a little light at 183. The middleweight champ, Anderson Silva, walked in sporting a red jumpsuit, and weighed in at 184. He and Cote faced off, bowing, then going nose to nose, then bowing again. I read that as, "I respect you, I'm going to kill you, I respect you."

By Mike Harris, sherdog.com
Many an MMA underdog boldly promises to "shock the world" by besting his or her heavily favored opponent.

Most wind up shocked themselves, knocked flat on their backs or tapping out before they black out care of, say, a deeply sunk rear-naked choke.

A few, such as Rashad Evans and Matt Serra, actually make good on their brash predictions with devastating Rocky-like victories over, respectively, Chuck Liddell and Georges St. Pierre.

Now comes Patrick "The Predator" Cote (13-4-0), the latest underdog -- actually, make that huge underdog -- to promise to "shock the world" by beating UFC middleweight champion Anderson "The Spider" Silva (22-4-0), the dangerously explosive muay Thai striker considered by many to be the best pound-for-pound MMA fighter on the planet.

The two meet Saturday in a championship bout at UFC 90 in Rosemont, Ill.

powered by ODEO
This week, Tom Joyce and I talk about Affliction partnering with EliteXC, Cro Cop's groin shot woes, St-Pierre's thoughts on Patrick Cote's chances against Anderson Silva, and an MMA card in Va. this weekend that is stacked with local talent.

UFC's Web sites for 89 and 90 are up - and can be seen here.

Paulo Filho

Tatame: And if their decision is to merge you to UFC, will you face Anderson Silva?

Filho: Definitely no. We're close friends and I believe there's space for everybody there, it's definitely out of my plans.

Yeah, sure. We've seen this before. Guys who are purportedly best friends saying they won't fight each other, but once they both get to the top of the mountain, money talks. See, the Zuffa (UFC/WEC parent company) is folding the WEC's LHW and MW divisions into the UFC. That means Filho, the WEC MW champ, will be thrown into the UFC ranks. To me, that means his WEC title is no more. He's undefeated, and although he recently suffered bouts with drug addiciton and depression, I see him winning his first fight in the UFC before he's offered a title fight with Silva. He'll take the fight.

Just in case you're down in Miami, check out Team Nogueira MMA. It's the gym that Big Nog, and Lil Nog (Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and little brother Antonio Roegrio Nogueira), along with Anderson Silva, set up.

Here's what they have to offer:

- 15,000 sq. ft. air conditioned facility - 3,000 plus sq. ft. of tatame mats - Separate rooms for private training

- Full Showers and Locker Rooms - For Men & Women - Designated weightlifting area

- Cardiovascular machines

- Multiple heavy bags, Muay Thai bags, speed & double end bags

- Plyometric training equipment - Octagon cage

- Pro Shop

Diego Sanchez vs. Thiago Alves

Anderson Silva vs. Patrick Cote

Even though this event doesn't happen until October, the UFC held a press conference anyway. Good thing it - word is Alves is at 200 and needs to cut to 30. Sounds like fun to me.

Sherdog member "TanMan" started a thread on sherdog.com about MMA's current win streaks:

Fedor Emelianenko (WAMMA heavyweight champion)
26 Fight Win Streak

Paulo Filho (WEC middlewieght champion)
16 Fight Win Streak

Miguel Torres (WEC bantamweight champion)
15 Fight Win Streak

Lyoto Machida (top contender to UFC light heavyweight title)
13 Fight Win Streak

Thiago Silva (top contender to UFC light heavyweight title)
13 Fight Win Streak

Urijah Faber (WEC featherweight champion)
13 Fight Win Streak

Anderson Silva (UFC middleweight champion)
8 Fight Win Streak

TanMan writes: Anyways I have Thiago going down next. IMO Machida has better stand up, ground game, and game planning on his side. If Faber ever moves up I have him also

Ted's Take: TanMan forgot UFC light heavyweight Rashad Evans, who is fighting Chuck Liddell at UFC 88 - Breakthrough on Sept. 6. I say Rashad goes down first before anyone else on this list. I guess you could argue that Evans (11-0-1) does have a slight blemish on his record (a draw with Tito Ortiz), but he has yet to be defeated.

Ryo Chonan beat Anderson Silva in PRIDE with a flying scissor heel hook. Hear what he has to say about that in this short, but hilarious clip.