Gotta love the wisdom of Wand: "Only the fighter who persists to the end, gets to the top ...Many guys that I knew gave up, guys who were better than me. My only difference is that I persisted and continued trying."
The latest video from Wand Fight Team. Wand - fresh from his fight with Franklin (cuts on his nose and ear) trains his team and gives them a heartfelt psych-up, complete with a classic Chute Boxe-like cheer at the end.
The real fight goes down tonight on Showtime.
Here's the description written on his youtube channel: "The Fight Camp" is a Documentary Feature Film about the legendary, mixed martial arts fighter Wanderlei Silva, preparing for the greatest fight of his career in the UFC. Motivated by his loyal fans from around the world, and with the heavy burden of his last career loss, Wanderlei Silva like a true champion, overcomes all obstacles, to push forward through the toughest fight camp of his life.
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.
The rivalry between former Chute Boxe teammates heats up. Here's what happened before this video.
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 Baudelaire at bloodyelbow for posting this.
A great battle between two of the world's top middleweights.
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."
