Anderson Silva

Anderson “The Spider” Silva has been the most dominant middleweight mixed martial arts fighter on the planet for seven years. With a career record of 19-4, he has held – or continues to hold – the Shooto Middleweight Championship, Cage Rage Middleweight Championship and the UFC Middleweight Championship. He is at the peak of his career with five straight victories, four in the UFC. In four of those fights he has finished his opponent in the first round.

Early in his career he trained with the famed Chute Box Academy in Brazil and now trains with the Muay Thai Dream Team. He also achieved a black belt in jiu-jitsu from Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in 2005. Anderson went 8-1 in his first nine fights in promotions that included Pride Fighting, Shooto and Meca.

After a loss to Daiju Takase, he left Pride Fighting and has since fought for any promotion that will give him the big fight. He returned to Pride in 2004 and was the victim of one the most spectacular moves to end a fight in MMA history. Ryo Chonan was able to land a flying scissor heel hook, and make Silva tap out or get his ankle destroyed. He didn’t return to Pride again and instead fought mainly in Cage Rage promotions until signing with the UFC in early 2006. Always looking for action, Anderson fought a professional boxing match in 2005 against Julio Cesar De Jesus, whom he KO’ed in the second round.

Silva was the first fighter to ever beat the great Hayato Sakurai, and has also beaten Rich Franklin, Jeremy Horn and Nathan Marquardt. He is so dominant because of his natural athleticism and a combination of deadly striking and aggressive jiu-jitsu. The lanky fighter has excellent Muay Thai kick boxing skills and his jiu-jitsu is good enough to defend against the best of grapplers.

Silva seems to be getting better with age, and his attitude to train in numerous fighting disciplines daily should keep him on top of the middleweight division for some time to come.