When is wanderlei silva next fight 2011

Silva left him hurt on the canvas after a series of nasty knees from the muay thai clinch. The last two fights of the year saw the Chute Boxe fighter earn decision victories in Pride FC 7 and 8, leaving Silva undefeated for the year. Such are how big things begin.

Thanks to the successes of Kazushi Sakuraba, Mark Kerr and others, Silva was afforded his biggest exposure at the time and made the most of it, dispatching Bob Schrijber via rear-naked choke in less than three minutes. The fight between Silva and Ortiz was the typical clash of styles to be expected back in the day—striker vs.

At one point, Ortiz caught Silva coming in with a short, hard punch that dropped The Axe Murderer to his belly, only to see him battle his way back to his feet and continue. In the other significant exchange of the bout, Silva caught an Ortiz kick, drove him to the fence and began to exchange punches.

Ortiz sagged to his knees and then quickly rose in the face of a Silva bull rush — running headlong with his back turned away from his Brazilian opponent — until the cage left him nowhere else to turn but inward, and the battle was joined again.

This is noteworthy given the fact that it may be the only time in the history of combat sports that during a title bout, one fighter actually ran from the contest and was still awarded a decision victory instead of being burdened by a loss via disqualification due to running. Sporting the well-known Gracie jiu-jitsu dual-facing dog heads on his chest, Medina looked like a man with enough familiarity with No Holds Barred NHB fighting to give Silva at least some pause, especially coupled with his experience in the early UFC shows.

The fight started quickly. Medina kept on being pulled face-first into the punishment, and after one particularly violent knee-to-the-face from the muay thai clinch, Silva was starting another winning streak without a scratch on him. Silva won a hard-fought bout with Mezger via first-round KO at , finally finding Mezger against the ropes and flat-lining him with hard punches.

The spirited fight saw Silva rocked and the crowd ever-interested in this madman with the skull tattoos and killer intuition who marched forward, no matter what.

At that point in his career, Yvel had already been disqualified once for biting an opponent and owned an overall record of , with all 23 wins coming by way of stoppage. To say he was a dangerous man who was much bigger was an understatement; he was a heavyweight savage with no appreciation for the rules of MMA.

Following that bout, Silva stepped up to perhaps the biggest test of his entire career to date: a fight against the undefeated Dan Henderson at Pride The fight was tough for both men, but Silva was on point, terribly aggressive and capable of attacking nearly everywhere the fight went.

Save for a period in the bout where Henderson landed some hard shots standing and used them as a gateway to take Silva down and pound on him, Henderson looked like a man who was trying to simply hold on for most of the fight. It was a back-and-forth brawl that saw Silva landing more often and doing more damage, which was enough to give him the victory and Henderson his first loss ever. Silva went for the year while improving his overall record to His defeat to Ortiz was the last loss he would endure for more than four years.

Up until their fight in March, Sakuraba had been the darling of the MMA world: a come-from-the-corner-of-your-eye sensation who had upset the notion that Brazilian fighters were the best in the world on the floor. The common thought at the time was that this was an easy fight for Saku; he would engage on the feet long enough to slip under a wild flurry from Silva, take him down and submit him in short order from there.

In Silva, Sakuraba faced the first true embodiment of uncompromising violence he had ever known. The UFC, while still a top-shelf organization, was not the premier organization, and thus Silva was top dog in the sport for his weight class. His next bout came soon, on May 27 against Shungo Oyama at Pride Silva won the bout via violent TKO from punches at 30 seconds of the opening round, solidifying himself as a fighter who was not taking anything, or anyone, for granted.

Then came a rematch with Sakuraba, on November 3 at Pride 17, some seven months after their first fight. His reward for the bout was a belt that seemed, at the time, almost fan-made.

It was not, of course, but it did not have the fanfare or promotional gusto that it was due, and this was perhaps one of the chief indicators that Pride FC was not as serious as the UFC.

In some part, there is validity to such opinion; many Japanese fighters were simply not up to the level of the fighters they were thrown against. These fighters seemed to be just popular enough to entice the hometown crowd into watching in the hopes of an upset, and for Pride FC, that does indeed seem to have been a factor in the matchmaking.

Consider Houston Alexander vs. Keith Jardine and Alexander Otsuka vs. Marco Ruas. Bother Alexander and Otsuka were heavy underdogs and rose to the occasion by defeating opponents who should have been well beyond their means.

At the end of the day, champions in Pride FC who were hardly ever Japanese had to be consistent and hungry—ready to rise to any occasion and devour all placed before them. And Silva was constantly hungry, with a maw full of razor-sharp teeth. Never was he bored or tired of wearing the belt; never did he grow weary of the sport or the demands it placed upon its champions.

In short, Silva was the ultimate champion of the day; he was in love with defending a belt he did not own to the fault of the sport until it was randomly made and passed off in a humorous parody of victory, void of all true promotional gravitas. Beyond those early moments, Silva was the violent sun that all else gravitated around in Pride FC. Detractors of the organization may have cast doubts upon their business practices or whatever else was at hand, but no one could doubt the savagery by which Silva plied his trade and defended what he thought was his: a belt of faux silver, set in leather.

Silva crushed Otsuka via TKO in less than three minutes, going during a banner year in his career and raising his total record to He wore the only true middleweight championship belt of the world. The year of was a slow yet fast year for Wanderlei Silva. He fought four times during 12 months, but only once was he set against a man who could defeat him more often than not: Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic.

After that, Silva faced the first true heavyweight of his career, who was closing in on the peak of his own career: Filipovic. Mind you, Filipovic was a true heavyweight back then—fast, poised and incredibly accomplished as a striker. In fact, he was, without a doubt, the best striker in the sport in , bar none.

Said smaller fighters would be declared heroes, and the fans of the sport would openly cry that they should never have to face or endure a disparaging word ever again during their lifetimes. Thus were the similar circumstances by which Silva stepped into the Pride ring to face Filipovic, who was the most dangerous striker of his time.

We saw not only a size disadvantage but a great clash of styles; the fight ended in a draw thanks to the modified rules that were arranged for the bout, which stated that if Silva went the distance, the bout was declared a draw.

But never during the fight did Silva look afraid or seem like a mark to pad Cro Cop's record. Silva was there to fight and win, even if his skills were not equal to a specialist like Cro Cop. And the fight was really excellent; both men were landing and enjoying moments of dominance. Cro Cop blasted Silva to the body with kicks that left him badly bruised, in addition to stiff punches. Silva attacked in his typical flurry-based style, forcing Cro Cop to give ground and go defensive.

He also managed more than a few takedowns on his heavyweight opponent and at one time blasted him with a beautiful straight right to the jaw, which was set up by a leg kick as Cro Cop stood too long by the ropes.

In , Silva only fought three bouts, but they would turn out to be among the most important of his career. Without a doubt, it was the MMA event of the year, hands down. Staged over two events spanning four months, all eyes were fixed on Japan. The first event, held on August 10 and dubbed Pride Total Elimination , was held at the Saitama Super Arena and saw 40,plus fans attend.

The second show on November 9 at the Tokyo Dome pulled in a massive 67, spectators. During the opening round, Silva defeated Sakuraba for the third time, by a one-punch KO, advancing to the next round in November while breaking more than a few Japanese hearts along the way.

During the final event, Silva won a hard-fought and very close decision over Yoshida, an Olympic gold medalist in judo, setting up the fight that fans of the sport had been anticipating since Pride Silva vs. Jackson had also enjoyed a shorter fight and seemed to be at an advantage. Just seeing both men standing there was the fairy-tale ending so many had hoped for.

Usually the tournament format has a way of upsetting the matchmaking hearts of fans, but not this time. The creme had honestly risen to the top. This just so happened to be the fight that nearly everyone had hoped for since Silva and Jackson engaged in a post-fight melee after Jackson had stopped Kevin Randleman at Pride Tensions were high, and both men fought very hard. In watching the fight, every second seemed to threaten a violent KO ending.

Then, the fight was stood up. Facebook Facebook profile Twitter Twitter. Yuki Kondo. Abdel Medjedoub. Video Watch the post-fight press conference. UFC Weigh-In. Watch the official weigh-in for UFC Silva vs. Franklin 2. It must be on his chest, nicely done, really big, so everyone sees the kick. Silva remains focused on his upcoming boxing clash with former UFC light heavyweight champion Ortiz, his first since out-boxing ex-world champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

To each his own, I guess. Silva, 46, has also voiced his interest in a boxing clash with fellow MMA legend Georges St-Pierre , and he has no plans to slow down in the next few years. The largest crowd ever is expected for the highly anticipated rematch between middleweight champion Anderson Silva and American contender Chael Sonnen , a grudge match two years in the making.

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