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MMA: Past Fight Discussion


Egg Shen

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That's a great buy for 8 quid.

 

All 3 are really good. 28 and 33 are widely regarded as 2 of the best shows Pride did. 33 is my favourite of the numbered Pride events. Gomi vs Diaz is crazy, one of my favourite MMA fights ever. Really enjoyed Sakurai vs Danzig aswell.

 

I'd say 32 is pretty underrated aswell. Hendo vs Belfort wasn't as good as expected but the rest of the card is top stuff.

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Right, I'm gonna work my way through the career of Wanderlei Silva :) I'll put my thoughts on the fights here and try and include links to videos where possible and also any additional info I stumble across and shit like that. I've seen most of his fights before but it's been so long with some I remember pretty much fuck all about them.Anyway, I'm having a blast so far watching through these old fights and it's reminded me why Wanderlei is my one of my 2 favourite MMA fighters to watch.Okay, I'll start at the beginningWanderlei Cesar da Silva started training in Muay Thai in his hometown of Curitiba, Brazil as a teenager under trainer Rudimar Fedrigo, the founder of the original Chute Boxe gym which has produced great fighters like Jose 'Pele' Landi-Jons, brothers Murilo 'Ninja' and Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua, Anderson Silva and many others aswell as Wanderlei himself. chute_boxe_logo.jpgHe originally took up fighting because he was "short and fat" as a kid and wanted to get in shape because of his lack of success with girls. He actually had his first amateur Muay Thai fight at just 13 years old and turned pro at 15. He also trained under Rafael Cordeiro and earned his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blackbelt from Cristiano Marcello.Wanderlei rocking the Clay Guida hairdo as a teenagerwanderleiaskidsizedix5.jpgWho'd have guessed this kid would go on to be one of the most feared men in pro fighting?

What he refers to as his

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Thanks for the comments. I'll carry on with the Wanderlei stuff

 

There are few prizefighters anywhere in combat sports that evince a more raw physicality. Silva possesses the perfect gladiator
Edited by wandshogun09
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"When I see my opponent, I begin to shake uncontrollably. Once he hits me, I think to myself, you just hit Wanderlei Silva, how dare you hit Wanderlei Silva. Then I try to kill them."

 

We're into the Pride era of Wanderlei Silva's career

 

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Wanderlei Silva vs Carl Malenko

12.09.99 - Pride 7

First round isn't much cop. Pretty much consists of Malenko going for takedowns and when he gets them he does pretty much fuck all. Wand defends well and is more aggressive landing a few good knees and getting the better positions on the ground.

 

Round 2 is much the same with Malenko just trying to wrestle and Wand finding success getting more dominant positions and landing the more damaging strikes. End of the fight sees Wanderlei on Malenko's back trying for a choke.

 

Wand gets a fairly easy unanimous decision in a rare underwhelming fight.

 

Full fight here

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/68aRjQT0b7g/

 

Wanderlei Silva vs Daijiro Matsui

21.11.99 - Pride 8

This is more like it. Matsui is one of the first of Wand's opponents to show zero intimidation and he looks well up for this fight. They immediately start brawling and Matsui actually lands some good shots. Matsui tries to take him down but Wand starts punching. At one point Matsui puts his head through the ropes to catch a little break and Wand just kicks him right in the head knocking him out onto the apron.

 

Wand starts to get the better of the striking. He rushes Matsui with a flurry, gets the clinch and starts blasting away with some very hard knees. Wand starts battering him all over the place with stomps and more hard knees from the clinch. Matsui must have a rock jaw to have survived some of this. His face was a mess.

 

susumu01.jpg

 

The action slows in round 2 with Matsui finally getting Wand on his back. Wand defends well though and not much happens. Wand probably landed better punches off his back than Matsui did to be honest.

 

Wanderlei takes another unanimous decision. This was much better than the Malenko fight though and Matsui showed a lot of toughness.

 

Fight here

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/jzEdI49TaHU/

 

Wanderlei Silva vs Bob Schrijber

30.01.00 - Pride Grand Prix 2000 - Reserve Bout

Commentators keep going on about Schijber's stand up and saying Wand shouldn't try and strike with him. As it was Wanderlei did just fine on the feet, infact Schrijber hardly landed a glove on him and Wand was battering him with hooks, uppercuts and knees.

 

Wand gets a takedown and straight into mount and backmount and slaps on the choke forcing Bob to tap in under 3 minutes.

 

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Despite being a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blackbelt, this is still Wanderlei's only submission win to date.

 

Wanderlei vs Schrijber

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93Kgq1S_3qU

 

Wanderlei Silva vs Tito Ortiz

14.04.00 - UFC 25: 'Ultimate Japan 3' - UFC Light Heavyweight Title

This is a real disappointment. Tito just shuts Silva's game down with takedowns and smothers him for 5 rounds. Not a whole lot happens. Everytime Wand tries to attack he gets dumped on his back and lay on for the rest of the round. Wanderlei tries from the bottom but he can't shift the bigger fighter off him. Tito surprisingly manages to drop Wanderlei at the start of round 2 when Wand comes in too eager. And Wand has a brief moment of success halfway through the 3rd landing some good shots and has Tito on the run but he's soon taken back down again.

 

susumu15.jpg

 

Smart tactics from Tito, using Wand's aggression against him but it makes for pretty dull viewing. Tito takes a one sided unanimous decision in a rare stinker from the Axe Muderer's career.

 

Wand vs Tito

http://www.mmavideofights.net/4354/tito-or...a-video-ufc-25/

 

Wanderlei Silva vs Todd Medina

12.08.00 - Meca World Vale Tudo 2

Todd Medina fought in one of the early UFC's. A bearded Wanderlei lands a headkick right off the bat and gets the clinch and destroys Medina with a series of knees to the face. 39 seconds later it's all over and Medina's nose is pissing blood.

 

Wand vs Medina

 

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In keeping with my last 2 Wanderlei posts, I'll end it with a Wand quote. This time a response to not liking something Paulo Filho said about him...

 

"If we fight, he had better go to the ground or he'll be beaten like a dog in the street without an owner."
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Yeah it was an impressive win no denying that. He totally shut Wanderlei down. Just disappointing, especially as a Wand fan. I'd not seen it for a couple of years and it was as boring as I remembered it being. Understandable tactics from Tito though when you look at that fight in context. He was coming off the loss to Frank Shamrock where he gassed so it was obvious he wanted to pace himself. And winning a 5 round shutout over Wanderlei Silva and becoming the champ isn't a bad way to bounce back.

 

Tito has had some crappy fights over the years like the Wanderlei and Matyushenko snoozers but he's had plenty of good fights too. The fight with Jerry Bohlander, 2nd Mezger fight, Yuki Kondo, 1st Ken Shamrock fight, Belfort, Griffin twice, Liddell twice and of course the classic with Frank Shamrock.

 

Never really been a fan but if it's true that he's having his last fight this year then I'd like to see him go out on a win, or at least a good performance.

Edited by wandshogun09
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"There are only two alternatives. Either I KO him or he KOs me. Because it's going to be a bloody fight. It's not going to be a moderate fight because I am not a moderate fighter."

 

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Wanderlei Silva vs Guy Mezger

27.08.00 - Pride 10: 'Return Of The Warriors'

Wanderlei comes into this fight at 12-3 in his MMA career. Facing off against one of his most well rounded opponents to date, Guy Mezger from the Lion's Den. This was probably the biggest event Wanderlei had been a part of to date. The UFC was pretty small time back then despite being the most well known brand in the sport. This Pride show was the best they'd put together at this point and the Seibu Dome was packed with about 30,000 people. Just 3 years earlier Wanderlei was fighting infront of about 200 people in Brazil.

 

These 2 really came out swinging for the fences. And Mezger was really taking the fight to Wand and cut him above the eye early on. Mezger is also the first guy to actually have an answer for the dreaded Wanderlei Thai clinch as he just either punches his way out or lands a knee first forcing Silva to release.

 

Guy_Mezger_vs_Wanderlei_Silva.jpg

 

Mezger was off to a good start and landed a nice headkick. That seemed to piss The Axe Murderer off though and he floored Mezger with a big right hand. They get into Wand's type of brawl and he started to get through more, even sneaking in a crafty headbutt, and followed up with a big right hook for the KO. All that happened in less than 4 minutes.

 

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Great little fight there.

 

Silva vs Mezger

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/n1N6bSntZvk/

 

Wanderlei Silva vs Gilbert Yvel

31.10.00 - Pride 11: 'Battle Of The Rising Sun'

Yvel lands a leg kick and Wand responded with a kick of his own which cracked Yvel right in the knackers.

 

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It's a bad one, the sound was sickening. Yvel was straight down on his hands and knees and rolling about in agony.

 

susumu05.jpg

 

It's over just 21 seconds in and ruled a no contest. The ever compassionate Japanese officials actually expected him to continue after a 2 minute break but it was clear he was done. They could have given him 2 days and I doubt he could have carried on.

 

Shame cos that could have been a really fun fight.

 

Full vid here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm0MjvI-mGE

 

Wanderlei Silva vs Dan Henderson 1

09.12.00 - Pride 12: 'Cold Fury'

Fond memories of this one. A good fight but they've both had better, but this one is nostalgic for me because it was the first MMA fight I ever watched and the reason I became such a fan of Wanderlei Silva.

 

My mate was heavily into Muay Thai at the time and was watching a lot of MMA. I was more into boxing but I'd done a bit of Muay Thai training aswell on and off. I was round his gaff one day and he showed me this fight because I didn't believe him when he told me there was a Japanese fighting company where you could stamp on people :) . I'd obviously heard of the UFC before but I'd never sat and watched it. All I'd seen at this point were early UFC clips of Ken Shamrock and Dan Severn from when the WWF showed them to hype up their debuts.

 

So he showed me Wanderlei Silva vs Dan Henderson 1. This was around late 2004 early 2005. I was disappointed to find out that Pride wasn't shown on TV here. So I started watching the UFC on Bravo soon after. First one I saw was UFC 52 with Liddell vs Couture 2 and Hughes vs Trigg 2 and that was enough to hook me ever since, I just missed out on Griffin vs Bonnar from the first TUF finale but caught up soon after. Being into Boxing and kickboxing I'd have got into MMA eventually but this Wand vs Hendo fight triggered my interest so it holds a special place for me.

 

That's that out of the way, onto the fight.

 

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Hendo had an unbeaten 9-0 record coming into this one and he was, on paper, a real tough test for Silva. A highly accomplished Greco Roman wrestler, with KO power and knowledge of submissions.

 

As it turned out, this was probably one of Wanderlei's best performances of his career. He dropped Hendo with the first flurry of punches and managed to control most of the action on the ground. Hendo put Wand in some deep shit at times though and clobbered him with a big haymaker of a right hand which badly rocked Wand and fucked his eye up. They both throw some bombs on the feet but Wanderlei seems to be finding the target more often and stuns Hendo a few times. And on the ground he unleashes them stomps and soccer kicks which I doubted the existence of...

 

Susumu13.jpg

This was where my mate said "See, I told ya yer cunt. He's stamping on him 'ent he" :D

 

The second round is where Wanderlei really starts to take over and really dominate the fight. He's aggressive on the feet, stuffs pretty much all of Henderson's takedown attempts and even takes Hendo down himself a couple of times which was impressive. On the ground he was in top position and finished the fight in mount to really seal the decision.

 

Silva's eye looks horrible and by the final bell he resembles Sloth from The Goonies.

 

wanderlei_silva_ouch.jpg

 

Fuck. Sloth Silva takes the unanimous decision victory in a very well rounded performance. He and Hendo went on to meet again in the last title fight in Pride history in 2007.

 

Wand vs Hendo 1

http://www.mmavideofights.net/3745/wanderl...video-pride-12/

 

Wanderlei Silva vs Kazushi Sakuraba 1

25.03.01 - Pride 13: 'Collision Course'

The first in a 3 fight series between Silva and Sakuraba. Sakuraba was seen as a legend already by this point having beat 4 members of the Gracie family, submitting 2 and forcing Royce to quit after 90 minutes the year before. He also had wins over Vitor Belfort, Carlos Newton, Vernon White and 'Conan' Silveira. They LOVED Sakuraba in Japan, and still do.

 

Tito Ortiz comes in before the ring introductions and hands the 2 fighters flowers. Ahh sweet. Wand doesn't look impressed and blanks Tito, feeling rejected he switches his advances to Sakuraba and plants a kiss on his cheek, awkward. I'd love to have seen Wand's reaction if Tito had tried that with him :D

 

Wanderlei comes out really aggressive and it nearly costs him as Saku caught him coming in with a hard right hook which put Wand down on one knee. That's where Saku's success ends though as Wanderlei knocks him down with a combo and then just obliterates him with a storm of punches, soccer kicks and knees to the head on the ground.

 

wanderlei_vs_sakuraba_large.jpg

 

Complete brutality. This was the fight that really put Wanderlei Silva on the map, especially in Japan. A passing of the torch type fight as it marked the end of Sakuraba's run of dominance and the start of Wanderlei's reign of terror. And the Japanese crowds really took a liking to Wanderlei's style and he became a huge fan favourite, really starting off the back of this win.

 

Wandy vs Sakuraba 1

http://www.mmavideofights.net/3749/wanderl...video-pride-13/

 

Wanderlei Silva vs Shungo Oyama

27.05.01 - Pride 14: 'Clash Of The Titans'

Surprisingly, after the biggest win of his career to date, Wanderlei is matched up with longtime Japanese lamb to the slaughter Shungo Oyama. He was 1-1 in MMA at the time of this fight and over the years he's been fed to the likes of Cro Cop, Dan Henderson and Melvin Manhoef TWICE. Fuck, what do they have against Oyama?

 

To be fair, looking him up, I was surprised to find out he's just scored a TKO win over Denis Kang in December and is riding a 3 fight winning streak all by 1st round stoppage. Fair play.

 

Oyama actually got off to a promising start and caught Wand coming in, similar to what happened to Wand against Sakuraba last time out. He recovers quick and stuns Oyama with a hard left hook and the ref calls it off at just 30 seconds. Bit early that to be honest. Then again, Oyama didn't complain about the stoppage so maybe he was hurt pretty bad.

 

Silva vs Oyama

http://www.mmavideofights.net/3747/wanderl...video-pride-14/

 

Wanderlei-Silva-celebrates.jpg

 

Don Frye talking about Wanderlei Silva

 

And as always, a Wandism. This time nutritional advice...

 

"One day it's the chicken and the rice, the next day it's the rice and the chicken"
Edited by wandshogun09
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