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Sleek, chrome surfaces abound at the brand-new X-Gym, which even features a health-bar-style lounge complete with fit and beautiful Brazilians engaged in conversation. However, hidden away on a lower level, down a dead-end hallway with several turns, I found a training area that was, for the moment, closed to the public. I was told later by Sylvio Behring, the resident Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black-belt and instructor at X-gym, that Anderson likes to train in private and does not enjoy the presence of strangers. Silva was at that moment grappling with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu legend and now DREAM MMA fighter Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza, which was not surprising and seemed a logical choice, since his opponent-to-be, Leites, is best known for his grappling skills. As he drilled positions and escapes with Jacare, Silva seemed much like any other champion training for a title defence. I was soon to learn, however, that his approach is unlike any other I’ve seen.
Towards the end of Silva’s training session, the young nephew of Rafael Feijao, who looked no more than six years old, charged the mat and engaged Silva in combat, as only a child could. Rather than being upset by the distraction, the champ instead rolled playfully around on the mat and fought a simulated MMA match with the young boy, allowing him to pass his guard to get the mount and other positions, and ultimately win the encounter with a simulated knockout. In Silva I was expecting a man of impenetrable focus, but instead found a man who smiled easily and whose face lit up and at the unexpected interruption. I then began to notice that, while he did not like audiences when he trained, he apparently did enjoy the presence of a small group of friends and family. Once the session was complete, he seemed light-hearted and relaxed. “I like to spend time with my kids and family as much as possible,” explains the 34-year-old father of four. “They are a big support; luckily I get to be with them often in Brazil.”
Silva says his training routine varies from fight to fight, but commonly includes a lot of Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and strength work. “I train techniques in the mornings,” he reveals, “and at night I work out and train again to correct my mistakes.”
However, this was not what I saw the following day, when I encountered Silva at the gym of the famous Nogueira brothers, Antonio Rodrigo and Antonio Rogerio, where he trains with their Black House team alongside the likes of Lyoto Machida, Vitor Belfort and Assuerio Silva. It’s completely different from X-Gym, chrome-free and with the more open feel of a boxing gym — and normally full of fighters training. On this occasion, however, it was midday and the gym was fairly empty. This was, presumably, why Silva chose this time to train. He sat on the bleachers and casually put his gear on, keeping to himself and looking much like a man with something on his mind. That is, until someone would speak to him, at which point his face would transform into a broad smile and he would answer, though always with few words. He entered the ring and I expected to see some fireworks as he worked his pin-point Thai boxing skills. Instead, he led a group of fighters in their training, intermittently working with each and sparring with them. Although they sparred lightly, his speed and ability to throw unpredictable strikes was evident. However, rather than being focused on his own game, he seemed more like the martial arts instructors from my own memory, taking time to work on the strengths and weaknesses of each fighter. There were no signs of ego or self-importance as he simply focused on the task of working with these fighters. Again, this was not the preparation I’d expected to see from the man commonly hailed as the world’s best pound-for-pound MMA fighter, and who has earned Black-belts in taekwondo (his first martial art), judo and BJJ. He definitely received a workout this day and on the previous day in training — it was just of a very different nature than I was accustomed to seeing.
These two days were within a week of his UFC fight, when most professional fighters relax a little to avoid both over-training and the possibility of injury. To me, however, not privy to the thoughts of the man himself and outside the protective inner circle of his team and management, it really did seem that Silva had things on his mind other than Leites. That’s not to imply that he wasn’t taking the impending confrontation seriously, but I got the feeling that he had no passion for this match-up, and no real fear that Leites could defeat him if he stayed with his very simple strategy: avoid the ground and fight from a distance.
A week later in Montreal, Canada, Silva did just that, defeating Leites fairly comfortably in their bout at UFC 97: Redemption and notching up his 24th win in his 30th fight. It was also his ninth straight victory in the Octagon, setting the record for the most consecutive wins in the UFC. Despite the result though, it was an underwhelming performance by both fighters and left most fans disappointed. When asked what the win meant to him, Silva’s typically brief response has not a whiff of self-congratulation: “I feel that I have done my job right, but I still have many things to improve on,” says the 185-pound (84kg) fighter. His only comment on the crowd’s reaction is to say, “I did what I am trained to do, and I think I did a good job. It’s not always possible to please all fans.”
Silva approaches each fight with a specific strategy, and insists that on this occasion it was executed, and the long time it took he and Leites to engage — a point that frustrated fans — “was just the natural course of the fight”.
“It was not an easy fight, Thales is a very tough fighter — I just followed my game plan,” says the lanky six-foot-two counter-fighter, who did everything he could to keep the contest standing and focused on attacking Leites’ leg, while Leites did the opposite and hit the ground at every opportunity. “I try to make use of my opponent’s mistakes.”
But most telling is Silva’s response to my question as to the reason behind his lackluster showing. An injury, perhaps? No — “I was just doing my job,” he says.
In listening to Silva’s reply and the disappointment of his fans, I’m reminded of another famous fighter, the boxer Roy Jones Junior, who was easily as dominant in his division in boxing as Silva is now in his. In the peak of his career, Roy received much criticism from fans and pundits alike for not being as aggressive as they thought he should be and for diverting his attention to other areas. In one instance, he even competed in a televised basketball game before one of his bouts. Even though he won the bout, Jones received criticism for his behaviour from those who felt that they were somehow in a position to have a better understanding of how he should conduct his life and career. Some in the industry felt that the absence of aggression was due to Jones’s frustration over a lack of true competition in his weight division. In fact, Jones moved up to compete at heavyweight, perhaps seeking that competition.
In considering the two fighters, more parallels presented themselves — besides the fact that both fighters moved up to fight bouts in heavier divisions, which they both won (Silva in his recent decision victory over UFC light-heavyweight Dan Henderson, who had held the PRIDE FC middleweight crown in Japan before the UFC bought out the Japanese MMA organisation). Interestingly, both Jones and Silva have losses on their records resulting from technical disqualifications for illegal strikes to downed opponents. In Silva’s case it was a kick to the face of Yushin Okami from the guard position (Silva was on his back, kicking upward) and for Jones it was two punches to Montell Griffin, whose knee was touching the canvas at the time. In both cases, Okami and Griffin could have continued but chose not to, thus disqualifying their opponent. In each case, the disqualified fighter felt that their opponent could have continued, but instead chose to use the rules to their benefit.
So what’s the point of this comparison between boxer and MMA fighter, aside from the obvious? The point is that I believe it speaks to the source of Silva’s distraction or lack of zeal. Following Anderson Silva’s defeat of Dan Henderson to unify the PRIDE and UFC titles, Silva’s manager mentioned that Silva would love to fight Roy Jones Jr. in a boxing match, to prove that MMA fighters are as technical as boxers. This led to communication between the Jones camp and Silva’s camp apparently, because Silva later said that Jones himself had already agreed to such a match. In fact, Jones, who is now currently promoting events that include both MMA and boxing matches on the same card, publicly expressed his interest in such a match.
So perhaps this would be the challenge that a fighter of Silva’s ability needs to keep him enthusiastic about fighting. Maybe this would be that crucial moment where Silva could pit himself against an accomplished legend to truly test his own mettle. Fate, however, had different plans. UFC president Dana White refused and still refuses to allow such a match to take place, thus dashing Silva’s dreams. After this, Silva announced on Brazilian sports network SporTV, his intention to retire from MMA competition in 2009. This announcement was later refuted, or possibly clarified, by his manager Ed Soares last September, when Soares said that Silva was contractually obligated to fight six more times for the UFC before retiring.
When asked about his plans post-UFC, Silva says “I have some things I would like to do”, but he won’t go into any detail. “I would like to have a school and teach new fighters. I like teaching,” he offers. That much was evident the day I saw him at the Nogueira brother’s gym — but something tells me it’s not the challenge he’s after just now. In fact, it’s rumored that Silva looked into getting a boxing license and even challenging his UFC contract in order to make the Jones fight happen. This occurred prior to Silva’s seemingly atypical performances against Patrick Cote and Thales Leites, and perhaps gives us as fans a little insight into those matches. Many fighters, especially those of the calibre of Anderson Silva, are driven to compete, but rather than their motivation being money and fame, it is the search for true challenges. A boxing match against Roy Jones Jr. would certainly qualify as such as test. In fact, insiders I spoke to were fairly unanimous in their opinions. One, who has been involved in the MMA industry for over a decade and is an inspector for the Nevada boxing commission (he requested not to be named), said “Anderson Silva is a great MMA fighter who better stay away from Roy Jones.” He went on to say, “His biggest problem is that he needs a real test in the UFC; I think he is getting bored with the competition of late.”
At first glance, a bout against Jones is not the logical choice for a fighter like Silva. Should he lose, it’s certainly possible that his marketability, which translates directly into financial gain since revenues are based on pay-per-view TV buys, will take a hit. On the other hand, a fight against Roy Jones Jr. could presumably earn Silva a payday in the millions of dollars, and possibly as much as double-digit millions, since the boxing industry has recently had a problem producing events to draw in a younger demographic and this match would give them a chance to reach a crossover market. This is all an aside, however, as those close to Silva have expressed that his interest is truly an expression of his personal desire to test himself.
So in looking back now at his training prior to the Leites fight, maybe his thoughts as he sat on those bleachers were not about the fight that was scheduled for him, but rather about the fight that wasn’t scheduled. Some might criticise that, but perhaps they should stop and consider that a fighter has a limited lifespan in MMA and only has the opportunity to make their mark during that period. This is a fact that all fighters come to recognise at some point, and perhaps a bout against Jones is where Silva feels he would make his mark. It could be that it’s a personal fascination, much like UFC legend Randy Couture’s desire to fight the long-undefeated Fedor Emelianenko.
Regardless, the fact is that champions are driven to test themselves. It is this drive that provides us as fans with performances that excite and entertain. At the same time, we as fans would do well to remember that these are not actors and this is not professional wrestling. The soap-opera-like back-stories are not scripted or easily forgotten by those experiencing them, and thus are bound to affect the performance of a fighter in the ring, and possibly dampen his fire for what on a particular night might have become more of a contractual obligation than a passion. They are only human, after all, and even those of us who love our jobs have days when the tasks at hand don’t enthuse us, and we just want to get them over with so we can move on to something more challenging. Some days, we would simply rather be doing something else.
Anderson Silva has had such days in the Octagon — but they haven’t been enough to put even one loss on his UFC record. That alone says enough about the man’s talent that opponents, whatever their field of expertise, should still beware the Spider.
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