Wanderlei Silva

Yes, you read correctly, the Pride fighting long time 205 pound champion would consider a move down to middleweight in order to avenge his loss to Dan Henderson, or even challenge Anderson Silva for the 185 lb belt. This is according to his weblog.

Silva also hinted that he has at least one more fight at 205 being talked about, a matchup with top contender Keith Jardine. Jardine most recently defeated Chuck Liddell while Silva most recently lost to Liddell. Thye rumor is perhaps UFC 84

Silva says that his move down is mostly because of his height (5'11") which is shorter than most at the 205 lb weight class. The lack of reach reallly seemed to affect Wandy in his outing against Chuck where Wanderlei just couldn't get inside to mount an offence.

UFC 82 is right around the corner (March 1st), return to UFC Results for full UFC 82 Results!

Dana White has finally announced that Chuck Liddell will fight Wanderlei Silva on December 29th at UFC 79. Of course many in the MMA community found this out when Direct TV slipped up with some early advertising for the fight.

Still, it's nice to hear that the fight I've been waiting so long to see is finally official. I'll be writing a breakdown of the keys to victory for each fighter soon, so check back for that.

Don't forget to return to UFC Results for UFC 78 Results on fight night in November. UFC 78 features

Rashad Evans vs Michael Bisping
While many fans aren't really that excited about this fight, remember that both fighters are undefeated and this might put one of them into title contention.

Houston Alexander vs Thiago Silva
Houston Alexander is on the fast track to the top of the UFC 205lb division. Another decisive showing in this fight and he will also be in title contention.

One of the most anticipated fights in the short history of mixed martial arts is Chuck Liddell versus Wanderlei Silva. Since 2003 this on again, off again match up has teased fans of both the UFC and Pride fighting championships, but now it looks like the fight may be on again.

UFC 79 on December 29th, 2007 is the rumored date for the fight to take place. The venue is in Las Vegas and the anticipation could not be any higher. It's true that both Wanderlei and Chuck are coming off back to back losses, but when you look at those losses and the quality of opposition it's clear that both of these guys are still at the top of their game

**** Don't forget to return to UFC Results for UFC 77 Results and beyond *** Continue reading "UFC 79 Ice Man vs Axe Murderer" »

When Wanderlei Silva asked if he would still be fighting at 44 years of age like Randy Couture is, he replied.

“Maybe if I fought someone the same age and the rounds were one or two minutes,” he laughs, “but five minutes as a professional, I think only he could do it. He’s Superman.”

Silva is training with Couture to get ready for his re-entrance to the Octagon on December 29th.

UFC.com has announced that Wanderlei Silva has signed to fight in the UFC and will fight in December. They have not announced his opponent, but it has been widely speculated that he will fight Chuck Liddell in a match that MMA fans have wanted to see for years.

Wanderlei Silva says that he'll be fighting at UFC 79 (December 29th, 2007). He hopes that the fight will be against former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell.

This fight would have been just slightly more interesting when both Chuck and Wandy were champions . Wanderlei had an impressive 5 year stay on top of the Pride middleweight division.

This news comes courtesy of the Xtreme Couture blog. It looks like Wandy is training with Randy Couture (at least for now) to help Randy get ready for his big fight on August 25th against Gabriel Gonzaga.

Our good friends over at mmaweekly have posted this translation to the Wanderlei response video. Obviously this isn't everything that was said, but it is the important parts. Perhaps we'll see Wanderlei vs Chuck after all.

Wanderlei Silva responds via video posted on his website to the allegations that he turned down a fight with Chuck Liddell for UFC 76 in September.

In the video Wanderlei stated, "I never said that I wouldn't fight Chuck. I've wanted this fight for a long time."

The former Pride champion continued, "I received a contract with two options, I could fight in September or November. I have chosen to make this fight in November. I was the first to want this fight, but they kept avoiding this fight. Now there's a lot of people saying that I have ducked Chuck. This is not true."

According to Silva, the timing for the fight to take place in September did not work for him. He explained, "I am in a moment of transition in my life. I'm going to move to the U.S. in a few weeks. I'm going to live in the U.S. and there's a lot of things happening, and I'm not focused on training the way I want to be. I always fought at the time the promoters wanted. Sometimes I did things I should not have done, but this time I won't do that anymore."

Denying he ever turned down a fight with Chuck Liddell, Silva said, "I want to fight chuck in November and make a huge show, and make it the biggest show ever...I have no doubt it's the most important fight of my life. I know Chuck is a great name in the U.S., we'll have a great fight. I think I must be in my best shape, so I want to take this time to train better and be in my best shape ever."

Wanderlei asserted, "This fight is on, if he (Chuck) doesn't hide behind this mess."

So, MMA fans watch this video. Does this look like a guy who's afraid to fight? I think not!

According to a video on Wanderlei Silva's web site, Silva wanted the fight with Chuck Liddell. The contract he agreed to had two possible dates on it, one is September and one in November. He wanted the November date, then he heard that Dana said he was ducking Chuck. Of course on his site I see a graphic showing Liddell vs Silva with September 22nd on it. Hmmm

Wanderlei is still hoping the fight materializes for November, but rumor has it that the UFC has scheduled Chuck Liddell vs Keith Jardin at UFC 76.

I don't know how this will play out. Here is the video, if any of our readers can do a rough translation and post it as a comment, that'd be great!

So, I surf over to UFC.com like I always do (multiple times daily) and what do I see in the headlines?

"Liddell-Silva Scrapped...Again"

C'mon, when Dana white had Silva step into the ring at UFC 61 and announce "I wanna f' Chuck" I almost fell off the edge of my seat. I was pumping my fist in the air, shouting! Of course, the fight didn't happen that time because of the Pride and UFC ownership clashing heads.

With the UFC ownership purchasing Pride and both Liddell and Silva loosing their last fights I thought it was really going to happen, then when I started reading rumors to that effect last week I was getting excited again.

Now, it appears that once again I will be disappointed. UFC.com is saying that it was Silva who said he didn't want the fight and Chuck Liddell is saying that he wasn't holding his breath for it to happen.

Sniff I'm just going to go into a corner now and cry myself to sleep...

This story was broken by our friends at ufcjunkie.com

Apparently the fighters have reached a verbal aggreement to fight at UFC 76 in September. This is a fight that I've been waiting for for a very long time.

Chuck Liddell is coming off a loss to Quinton Jackson while Wanderlei Silva just lost to Dan Henderson. Jackson and Henderson are facing each other at UFC 75, you can expect the winner of Silva vs Liddell to get a title shot.

Dana White is already starting to talk about a Chuck Liddell vs Wanderlei Silva match. This would be perfect in my opinion. Dan Henderson recently defeated Wanderlei Silva in Pride. Similarly Quinton Jackson recently defeated Chuck Liddell in the UFC.

Now, how about this:

Quinton Jackson vs Dan Henderson
and
Chuck Liddell vs Wanderlei Silva

Then the winner of those two fight. These are arguably the four best at 205 lbs in the world, of course there are others, Shogun, Tito, Rashad, Arona, but this list is as good as any.

What a great time to be a UFC fan!

Please note before reading my list that these are my favourite fighters, not the fighters which are the best. That's a different list, perhaps entitled "Top 10 Best Figthers".

So, I wrote the title to this little entry and now I'm stuck, how do you pick a favourite. I've been watching MMA and particularly the UFC and PrideFC for so long that I feel like I'm picking one of my children as a favourite over another child. It's not fair, but I've made the commitment and now I'm going to follow through with it.


#10 BJ Penn is one of my 10 most favourite fighters. BJ Penn is made of rubber, probably the best natural fighter in MMA. BJ's appearance on the Ultimate Fighter TV series just solidifies this position. The guy is truly funny!

#9 Wanderlei Silva. Silva is an animal in the ring, pure and simple all out agression. A Wanderlei Silva fight is one of the most exciting things to watch. Even his recent losses to Cro Cop and Henderson were amazing fights.

#8 Royce Gracie. When I watch the old UFC fights with Royce Gracie I can't help but be amazed. Certainly Royce had the training advantage over his opponents, but watch carefully. Royce is tough, he took punches and kept coming. Watch his not so old fight against Sakuraba or his fight against Matt Hughes. Royce didn't win those fights, but his toughness came through.

#7 Kevin "The Monster" Randleman. Whenever the "Monster" steps into the ring (or cage), you get the feeling that something super-human is going to happen. Kevin Randleman is a freak of nature, strong and quick. Watching him drop Fedor on his head is still one of my favourite highlights.

#6 Mirko Cro Cop. Mirko suffered a loss recently to Gabriel Gonzaga, but it isn't Mirko's first loss. He came back before and he will again. He's an exciting fighter and doesn't talk trash, for that he's #6

#5 Fedor. Although this is a favourite list and not best fighter list, Fedor deserves to be on here out of simple respect. He's the best of the best.

#4 Matt Serra comes in at #4. Ok everybody, accuse me of jumping on the Matt Serra bandwagon, but Matt has paid his dues in this sport. The first fights I ever saw Matt in were an eye opener to me. I'd never seen anybody transition positions as smoothly and easily as Serra.

#3 Randy Couture makes my favourite MMA fighter list at number three. Randy is a class act, always has respect for an opponent and despite being an underdog in almost every fight he's ever had he's the UFC heavyweight champion at 43 years old.

#2 My second favourite MMA fighter is Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. He never gives up in a fight, he is tough as nails and seems to always have respect for his opponents. Big Nog is one of the true talents in MMA. In a fight against Nog, if your name isn't Fedor, you'd better be prepared to lose!

#1 My favourite fighter has to be Chuck Liddell. I'm not saying that because Mr Liddell has an upcoming fight with Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. In fact, I'm picking Rampage to win that fight. I picked Chuck because he has consistently said what he was going to do, then do it. No fanfare, no badmouthing, just great exciting fights, usually ending in TKO's.

Wanderlei Silva vs Eugene Jackson in a Bare Knuckle match in Brasil.

Watch this, then tell me you don't want to see Wanderlei Silva vs Chuck Liddell!

There is a new PPV starting April 28th entitled "Pride Fighting: Decade"

It might be worth watching for all the UFC fans who haven't had much exposure to Pride Fighting in the past. Or even PrideFC fans who want to re-live some of the classic Pride match-ups.

From PrideFC.com

Don't miss out on this retrospective on the 10-year history of PRIDE Fighting Championships,
featuring interviews from such PRIDE fighters and icons as: Nobuyuki Sakakibara, Nobuhiko Takada,
Renzo Gracie, Chuck Liddell, Mark Coleman, Quinton Jackson, Mark Kerr, Kevin Randleman, Frank Trigg, Don Frye, Matt Hume, Gilbert Yvel, plus many other legends in MMA!

If you've never seen Wanderlei Silva fight, you're really missing out. He's quite simply the most aggressive fighter I've ever seen. I almost fell off my seat when he showed up in the UFC ring and announced that he wanted to "fuck"...I mean "fight" chuck. Unfortunately it wasn't meant to be, but you can be sure that Dana White hasn't given up on getting Wanderlei over to the UFC.