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This weekend – assuming all goes to plan – should mark the end of the career of one of the UFC’s greatest-ever stars. Former UFC Middleweight champion Anderson Silva is all set to face Uriah Hall in the main event of UFC Vegas 12, and win or lose, ‘The Spider’ has promised to hang up his gloves.
Anderson Silva has been with the UFC since 2006 and won the UFC Middleweight title in his second fight with the promotion. From there, the Brazilian went on to record ten straight successful title defenses and held the title for seven years before finally dropping it.
Anderson Silva still holds a number of UFC records to this day, including the most Knockout of the Night awards and the most knockdowns in UFC history. However, there are probably plenty of things fans don’t know about ‘The Spider’.
Here are five fascinating facts that UFC fans may not know about Anderson Silva.
#1 Anderson Silva was supposed to debut in the UFC in 2001
By the time he signed with the UFC in 2006, Anderson Silva already held a reputation as one of the greatest Middleweight fighters on the planet. The Brazilian held an MMA record of 17-4 and was renowned as one of the world’s most dangerous strikers. If anything, many UFC fans felt that his arrival was somewhat overdue.
However, if things had been a little different, Silva could well have joined the UFC way back in 2001. At that stage, the young ‘Spider’ was 7-1, but had already made an impact in the world of MMA by becoming the first man to defeat Japanese star, Hayato Sakurai.
The win gave Silva the prestigious Shooto Middleweight title, and from there, the UFC quickly became interested. The promotion attempted to sign Silva and pit him against Carlos Newton, who had recently won the UFC Welterweight title, for a fight at UFC 34 in November 2001.
However, it wasn’t to be. Despite the UFC looking all set to put the fight on, Shooto nixed things, stating that they still had Anderson Silva under contract. The UFC decided not to take things further, and so Silva stayed in Japan while Newton ended up fighting another future UFC legend in the form of Matt Hughes.
#2 His time in Japan didn’t go all that well
After his run in Shooto, Silva remained in Japan, signing with the huge PRIDE promotion rather than moving to the UFC. And indeed, he started his career off there in brilliant fashion. ‘The Spider’ took out three successive opponents, including Carlos Newton – perhaps giving UFC fans a glimpse of what could’ve gone down had they fought at UFC 34.
His fourth fight, however, didn’t go so well. Silva was pitted against Daiju Takase, a career journeyman at best who sported a record of 4-7-1 and had lost his last fight. On paper at least, it looked like a squash match for ‘The Spider’, but things didn’t turn out like that.
Somehow, Takase was able to submit Silva with a triangle choke in the first round, stunning everyone who witnessed the fight. The loss actually put a temporary end to Silva’s PRIDE career – but after three big wins on the regional circuit, he was back.
This time he was faced with Ryo Chonan – another largely unproven fighter – but found himself beaten and submitted again. This time, the finish involved a diving heel hook – a unique submission that meant a lot of highlight reels at the time showed Silva as the victim, something that would become very rare once he made it to the UFC!
The fight would be the final one in Silva’s PRIDE career, and he has never fought on Japanese soil again in the 16 years that have followed.
#3 Anderson Silva used to work at McDonald's
It’s common for top athletes to have held down regular jobs before finding fame, and plenty of the UFC’s top stars are no different. Usually, you find that professional MMA fighters once worked as doormen, or were perhaps involved with their country’s police force or armed forces. However, Anderson Silva is very different.
The affable Brazilian grew up largely in poverty in Sao Paulo, living with his aunt and uncle. While he dabbled in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as a youngster, before he truly entered the world of martial arts, he worked in a local McDonald's restaurant, flipping burgers for a living!
While Anderson Silva would eventually rise to the very top of the UFC – earning millions of dollars and wowing fans worldwide in the process – his background never quite left him. Prior to his UFC Middleweight title fight with Demian Maia in 2010, Silva’s manager Ed Soares revealed that ‘The Spider’ still had a taste for Big Macs, and would eat them prior to a fight.
Of course, Anderson Silva’s links to McDonald's only made his eventual sponsorship deal with Burger King more ironic. ‘The Spider’ ended up wearing the logo of McDonald's' rival on his shorts at UFC 148 when he fought Chael Sonnen – and reportedly picked up a cool $500,000 in the process.
#4 He left the Chute Boxe Academy under a black cloud
If you look back at Anderson Silva’s earlier fights, particularly those in PRIDE, you’ll see that he was once part of Brazil’s famed Chute Boxe academy. Anderson regularly had the likes of Wanderlei Silva and Murilo ‘Ninja’ Rua in his corner and appeared to be well-embedded into the team.
However, once he arrived in the UFC, he was no longer part of Chute Boxe and instead was largely associated with the Nogueira brothers – former members of the Brazilian Top Team, who were once deadly rivals to Chute Boxe. So what exactly happened?
Well, Anderson Silva left the team under a pretty black cloud at some point between his PRIDE career and his move into the UFC. And to say the split was acrimonious would be an understatement.
In 2012, Silva discussed his issues with Chute Boxe in his biography, detailing clashes with one of the team’s star fighters, Jose ‘Pele’ Landi-Johns, as well as coaches Rafael Cordeiro – who he apparently considered shooting – and Rudimar Fedrigo.
And after describing Fedrigo as a “bad person”, the then-UFC Middleweight champion found himself sued by his former manager and coach, with the Chute Boxe head basically claiming Anderson Silva was ungrateful about the men who helped him in his earlier career.
As of the time of writing, no conclusion to Fedrigo’s lawsuit has been detailed – suggesting that things were either smoothed over or swept under the carpet. Either way, the breakdown of Anderson’s relations with Chute Boxe remains an interesting footnote in his legendary career.
#5 He has an extremely woke attitude towards gay athletes in MMA
MMA is usually considered one of the more progressive sports in the world when it comes to being LBQT+ friendly. The UFC – the world’s biggest promotion – has seen plenty of openly gay fighters step into the Octagon, and in 2018, history was made when two gay fighters – Amanda Nunes and Raquel Pennington – faced off for the UFC Bantamweight title.
However, as of the time of writing, no male UFC fighter has come out as gay, despite a number of observers – including former UFC title challenger Dan Hardy – being sure that there are definitely a number of such fighters in the promotion.
One UFC legend who clearly wouldn’t have a problem with a male fighter coming out as gay is Anderson Silva. In a fascinating 2014 interview that tackled a number of subjects – from racism to his struggles with poverty as a youngster – Silva was asked about prejudice towards homosexuals in mixed martial arts.
His answer? ‘The Spider’ stated that it’d be “silly to not express your feelings” and went onto say that he’d be happy to train alongside a gay fighter, as long as they respected him.
And in fact, Anderson Silva – who is married to his wife Dayane and has five children – has also gone on record to say that in his younger days, plenty of people thought he was gay. In another interview, Anderson stated that because he would dress up in his sister’s clothes as a child, was vain about his appearance, and had a high-pitched voice, “a lot of people were sure I was gay”.
Quite how long it’ll be before a male fighter comes out as gay is still a question mark. But judging by the attitude of Anderson Silva, they should have absolutely nothing to fear.
