http://www.tatame.com.br/entrevistas.asp?id=7216
Wanderlei Silva
by Marcelo Alonso
In search of one more belt
Known by his courage and because he never picks who he fights, the pride middleweight champion travels to japan for the final stage of this years gp. Now in a different category, the Open Weight. "It will be the most difficult challenge of my life" silva said. the lesser fighters have lost only the strongest remain. "Champions can be any one of the four ", said the pride Middleweight champ . This Tatame reporter went to Curitiba to see wanderlei silva train for a day . Silva did Boxing training , wrestling ,and moy thia in the morning and did heavy physical training with his trainer ,Rafael Alejarra, in an academy he built in his house, Wanderlei granted us this interview
How it go with the preparation of the moy thia?
My injury of the rib disturbed very much, I hurt it in my first training of moy thia. Now I am already 100 % doing moy thia, Wrestling, Jiu-jitsu, i am managing to do everything. Shogun has me helped very much in the trainings, yesterday even he gave me a knock down, with a kick in the nose, an unthinkable thing. He is returning very well, you can't even tell that he was hurt. I train alot with shogun. I think next year will be the year of "shogun", but this year is mine.
What you did from different in terms of preparation for the GP Open Weight?
I gave great emphasis to physical preparation. After mounting an academy at my home, it brought my physical trainer Rafael Alejarra of Cheerful Oporto to live at my home. We did a lot of work with new equipment always aiming at the movements of struggle aiming to gain a little more of muscular mass, explosion and to try to fight the maximum of possible time with more forces and more speed, still I am going to punch the faces of ppl bigger then me. I had already done a preparation for the first fight and now i am healthy. I weigh around 99 kg.
what are your plans for your next fight in the gp?
I am going to catch the Mirko of face, which is a strong face, he is one of the biggest fighters in pride, If I manage to submit him or even knock him out, it will be a good night for me. I am going for that. i did good in the first fight against him and now I am stronger, more experienced. I am starting to enter my prime, i have one
alone physical trainer, I have a team with several technicians who train me daily. I think that mirko is more cunning also, he learned Jiu-jitsu with the Werdum, who is very good fighting on the ground. I think that if I to manage to pass his guard, it is going to be easier for me. But I am not going my training based only on that, therefore I am doing a good preparation standing up, which is how I like fighting. The great thing about the GP is that you have to fight with everything and at the same time fight for the second fight of the gp. I think that this will be the most difficult challenge of my run. He weighs 110 kg, he has a very strong kick, thats why it is complicated,i have to be clever, and intelligent.
what do you think about pride and the ufc working together?
I think it is good. They are plaining very good and interesting fights for the public. I like it because the challenge is bigger , the more ppl that see me fight, the more fans i will acquires. that is the history of the me? If you train, you know that you can face anyone, however big the adversary is. i do not know if i will win or loose, but either way you have mto be a real man to do that. alot of times I fought with doubt, many people said i wan't good enough to win, which is not good... But you have to always try. I am there, still living, working more than ever.
Cro Cop made a comment about you saying that he ill beat you quickly and that he will beat Barnett in the last round. What do you think about him saying that about you?
Oh, the fact is that not even fish run their mouths like this. He knows that if he fights me or Minotauro, he already lost if he thinks it will be an easy fight. But he can think whatever he will think ,that he will win easly,we will see who is the best fighter when we fight
Do you think the heart of the Brazilian fighter is different?
Certainly,the brazilian heart is always different. It manages to suffer the worst situations... The Brazilian are this way, when a fighter manages to do well here in Brazil, he can be a champion at any place of the world. you have trainings partners there in the academy that are much better than the ppl you fight. ppl who do well here end up making alot of money to fight
Who do you think is going to win this 83kg GP ?
, I didn't even know Kang and he appeared, and beat Ninja... But in the first three minutes of a fight, it is very complicated, any one can take a bomb to the face. ninja was my favorite to win the gp but it has to be Paulão now, he is quite strong, this a very hard tournament.
What do you think of the world bjj championship?
I spent a lot of cash, but it was worthwhile. I had never gone in an event like that one, and i wanted to see how it was. I found that the fighters are of a high level, they are very good, professional athletes. I was bothered only when ppl knew my face. I think that fighting has to pay. To fight only for the medal is punk, it lessens the value of the fighter. I did not know that Xande (Brook) was there, he is one fighter super popular, he is a really good person, he managed to beat Roger Gracie. at the fights i regreat not having my school there to recruit good fighters.
how did the jiu-jitsu public treat you?
very good ,today there is no rivalry. There were alot of good people and I was very recognized, even in the street. In the hotel, in the street, in the restaurant, i was recognized every were. i got treated very good in the city.
At last who will be the hard work of the Kick Boxing?
It is the Shogun itself. He is very big, very strong. He grew thin for gi training and even so he still weighs 101 kg
Sakuraba came again to train with you. what do you think about a possible fight between him and Rickson?
I think that Sakuraba is a fighter that does everything, with kicks and on the ground.he has great endurance. if sakuraba trains for straight, it is going to a hard night for Rickson. Rickson is alot older and he will not be prepaired for todays mma, the legend is going to fall.
It seems that the Paulão trained with the Rickson and was impressed by his ground...
Rickson must be really good, because Paulão is good on the ground, but Jiu-jitsu is not mma. Jiu-jitsu alone will not work for mma, you need to be good at punching, you need to be good at kicking and Sakuraba is very good at both. Rickson is going to need to start training for the technical part of mma.
