UFC 79: My time with Anderson & Ed
Posted by Marc Staehling on January 8th, 2008
With the beginning of 2008, we have been granted a brief respit between all the New Year’s Eve action and before an avalanche of fight-cards that really gets rolling with UFC 80 on January 19th. This hiatus gives us a chance to reflect on the year that was, and ponder what the new year will bring.
From a personal standpoint, easily my most memorable MMA moment of the year was attending UFC 79 in Las Vegas, my first ever live UFC event.
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I could likely fill a book with all of my tales of debauchery and adventure in Sin City, but with that being said I’d like to touch on one specific aspect of my time with the UFC live.
Being a UFC Fight Club member I was given the opportunity to attend a Q+A session with middleweight champion Anderson Silva, and his interpreter/manager Ed Soares. The session was pretty run of the mill, with various Affliction and Tapout-clad members of the audience asking Anderson who he’d like to fight, “my clone”, and if he’d fight Paulo Filho, “would you fight your brother?” he responded. My question about how important his time in Cage Rage was for getting his career back on track, and paving his way to the UFC wasn’t given as meaty an answer as I was looking for, although I think some of my question may have been lost in translation. One thing that I did gain from the session is that Anderson Silva is very humble warrior, with a great sense of humour. When queried about his affinity for Michael Jackson, he promptly smiled and busted a move on the stage answering the question without a word.
After the session as fans began clamoring around Silva for autographs and pictures, I got a chance to sit and chat with Ed Soares for a few minutes and he was able to answer some of my questions that hadn’t been addressed in the formal Q+A.
I first asked him about Black House, and any plans to bring the Brazilian fight camp to North America. He confirmed that the name has been changed from Black House to Iron House, due to some issues with one of the original Brazilian backers, but that there were plans to set up a facility in California by mid-year that would have heavy involvement from Anderson himself, and Lyoto Machida. Sounds to me like a pretty good place to work on your striking.
I got to cover various other issues with Ed the short time I had with him. On Filho’s two WEC performances: “he had food-poisoning in the Doerksen fight”, and “suffered from a horrible weight-cut in the Sonnen fight that left him bloated”. He indicated that a move to 205 was a strong possibility. On Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Soares said that his new training facility in Brazil is “incredible” but that Minotauro is a guy that does his own thing and doesn’t see him training full-time with a camp like Iron House.
On a potential clash between Silva and Matt Lindland, “Anderson would knock him out”. He specifically cited the Terrell fight as evidence that Matt had a “suspect chin”, a point I respectfully disagreed with considering Mr. Lindland went toe-to-toe for fifteen minutes with 205 kingpin Quinton Jackson. Ed Soares was a very personable guy, and more than willing to talk candidly about the fight game with myself and a few of my friends.
As I left Vegas, tired and hung over, I ran into a familiar face on the escalator at the airport: Anderson Silva. I did a double-take. There he was, arguably the best pound for pound fighter in the world, by himself, backpack and glasses on, heading back to Brazil by himself, no entourage, to train for the biggest fight of his career. I pointed at my Professional Shooto Japan T-shirt and asked him about his fight against Mach Sakurai, and why he can’t cut that much weight anymore, needless to say, he didn’t have a clue what I was trying to say. In the end I just shook his hand, wished him best of luck against Henderson, he wished me and my friends a Happy New Year, and off he went to his gate.
Dana White often talks about how UFC fighters are different from the major North American pro-sports athletes, and I tend to agree. All the fighters, managers, referees and UFC personnel that I had a chance to meet in Vegas were all incredibly nice and willing to chat. As the sport continues to grow, perhaps this will change, and you won’t be able to hang out with fighters on this level, but while it lasts it’s something that sets the UFC apart and makes attending a live event a very memorable experience.
Also in the news on 8th January 2008:
-Thales Leites has had to withdraw from his bout with Nate Marquardt at UFC 81 due to a broken hand.
-Grappling superstar Marcelo Garcia has joined American Top Team.
-Despite rumours indicating otherwise, it appears that Diego Sanchez will continue to fight at 170 lbs.
-Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen to continue fighting in Japan.
-WVR’s 3/5 Sengoku show is beginning to take shape.