Wanderlei Silva

Wanderlei Cesar Silva is the name of a Brazilian fighter or rather to put it straight, he is a mixed martial art fighter. He was born in 1976 and gathered fame only after competing for Japan’s Pride fighting championships and Ultimate fighting championship (UFC). He is being trained under the guidance of Rudimar Fedrigo at a fighting academy called Chute Boxe Academy of Brazil. His specialization is Muay Thai and is a black belt holder in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Wanderlei Silva has registered successful victories over great fighters of his field like Kazushi Sakuraba, Dan Henderson, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Yuki Kondo and Ricardo Arona. Nevertheless, Wanderlei Silva is also a PRIDE middleweight champion of 2003 and other Grand Prix championship.

He has been a champion of PRIDE middleweight championship along with other championships as well such as PRIDE 2003 Middleweight Grand Prix champion. The nickname of Wanderlei is “The Axe Murderer”, which is influenced by his highly aggressive attack and fighting techniques. He engages his competitor with punches and Muay Thai clinch. His fighting style also includes stomping and kicking down his opponent. Although he is known as “the Axe murderer” among his English and American fans he is known as "Cachorro Louco" among his Brazilian fans. Silva took his training in early years for Muay Thai as well as kickboxing. Later he joined military and emerges as a good fighter with his skills and aggression. He has registered many victories in Brazilian fighting tournaments.

His first match was fought in 1996 for Brazilian Vale Tudo Fighting organization in which he knocked down his opponent with his strong punches. He fought against Dilson Filho in his first match. Nevertheless, he had many more many matches offered to him by BVF and which he played fabulously till the victorious end.

The time period between 1997 and 1999 saw many fighting championships and tournaments for Silva. He fought four matches for International Vale Tudo Championship events and five other championship matches.

Wnaderlei Silva entered PRIDE championship in the year 1999 and registered many victories from 1999 to 2004. He won 18 fights in PRIDE championship and also had a draw match with Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović. His first PRIDE match was against Carl Malenko whom he defeated badly with his punches and kicks.

He grew up with his experience at PRIDE and became even more skillful fighter for Ultimate fighter championship, which was soon to come. With the PRIDE championship he not only gathered experience and fame but he was also able to gather attention of his favorites and improved his MMA records as well. He entered the UFC ground in 1998 and fought his first match against Vitor Belfort. He was badly defeated in his first UFC match. He later contested for UFC 20 in the year 1999 and emerged victorious this time knocking down his opponent who was Tony Petarra.