Every fighter has to start somewhere. And in this, the first of a reasonably regular series we’ll take a very close look at the professional MMA debut of a current star or fighting legend. With hindsight (such a wonderful thing) was it obvious they were going to be something special? Or did they look like just another fighter? How have they changed and developed? Or have they stuck to the same game plan and skill set all along?

First up is the inimitable “Axe Murderer” Wanderlei Silva.

The Debut:

A quick glance at Wanderlei Silva’s record shows he won his first officially recognized MMA fight against someone named Dilson Filho on November 1st 1996. Given the way his career has developed on the way to becoming one of the sports few legitimate stars it’s easy to assume he went out there and smashed his opponent to pieces, just as he has done so many times in the following 8 years. Well, you know what they say about assumptions. In reality, the debut of the then 20-year-old “Axe Murderer” was actually amongst the hardest, wildest rumbles of his career.

Starting aggressively, Silva was swinging from the outset as a wild punch failed to connect and Filho ducked underneath, grabbing a perfect set up for a double leg takedown. Rather than just force Silva to the mat Filho elected to haul him skywards and slam him hard on the canvas. On his back, Silva was in a vulnerable position just seconds into the scrap, as Filho worked towards side control. Along the way, he landed a few hard elbows through Silva’s ragged defense. As he tried to squirm free Silva found himself underneath the ring ropes taking punishment. Filho whacked him with a couple of stiff punches to the face before slamming a pair of knees into Silva’s ribs that sent him tumbling off the ring apron.

Silva was quickly back on his feet and in centre ring, grinning like a madman and ready to throw down. Filho obliged him and the pair of them started throwing wild left and right-handers with reckless abandon and little accuracy. Within seconds Silva was holding Filho, working to trap him inside his now familiar Muay Thai clinch. Filho though, defended well and swung Silva to the mat for his second takedown, this time by simply muscling him down with a headlock. Landing with side control, Filho quickly switched to a full mount and landed a couple of nice punches until Silva secured a tight waist lock and showed impressive strength in powering himself back to an upright position.

Breaking free of Silva’s under hook clinch, Filho initiated another ragged exchange in which both men landed hard, hurtful shots. With both fighters rocked, their punches became even more wild and desperate until Silva landed a brutal right hand, his most significant offensive display of the fight so far. Fatigue prevented him following up though and both fighters looked flat footed and exhausted. Another hard right hander, this time an uppercut, connected with Filho’s jaw but it was Silva who looked in worse shape, his mouth hanging open, his movements slow, his hands slung low and a cut under his left eye. He clinched again and tried his first takedown but Filho, clearly tiring, successfully blocked it.

Silva backed away into a corner and Filho shuffled towards him, taking a looping overhand right on the way in. Clinching again, both men sagged onto the ropes and moved from corner to corner until they finally came to a halt and rested for a few seconds, cuddling each other as they gasped for breath. Silva struck first, launching a vicious looking head butt (perfectly legal on this show) to the side of Filho’s face. That signaled the beginning of the end for Filho as Silva finally secured his favorite clinch, hands locked and wrapped securely behind Filho’s neck. He landed a hard knee to the midsection and Filho’s entire body sagged noticeably. Releasing the Muay Thai clinch Silva landed a short right elbow that seemed to knock Filho out. As he went limp, Silva hit a left elbow on the way down. Filho, by now draped helplessly over the ring ropes, took one last knee to the face before the referee intervened and waved off an exhausting, dramatic four minute war. Silva staggered away, so exhausted he could barely raise his arms in victory.

Analysis:

So, what did Silva’s debut tell us about him as a fighter? Well, it actually tells us a lot. He displayed bucket loads of aggression, a truly ferocious will to win, a reckless striking style, heavy hands and knees, a certain vulnerability on the mat, and finally, suspect stamina and punch resistance. Funnily enough, most of these traits have shown up time after time in his ensuing rampage through his weight class.

Silva’s aggression and will to win have been constant companions. The man genuinely relishes brutalizing his opponents, “Wanderlizing” them in the quickest, nastiest ways he can think of. His record is littered with violent knockouts and beat downs; whether it’s pounding Eugene Jackson with his bare fists or stomping and kicking the stuffing out of Kazushi Sakuraba or Yuki Kondo, Silva is one of the most aggressive, determined fighters on the planet.

His reckless, caveman-like striking style has been a constant too. Silva leaves himself wide open for counters, his leaky defense brutally exposed by Vitor Belfort and tested by Guy Mezger, Dan Henderson and Quinton Jackson. In fact, it was only really in his rematch with Jackson that Silva displayed a properly disciplined punching style. Against Mark Hunt, his striking proved inadequate opposite a well-schooled, technically sound kick boxer. Of course, his wild style has generally worked extremely well and is one of the main reasons for his popularity. A Silva fight is rarely a dull affair.

As you might expect, Silva, still in his twenties, has lost none of his power since 1996. His one punch KO of Sakuraba in their third meeting, his nonchalant blasting out of Ikuhisa Minowa and that final brutal knee he landed on Quinton Jackson to end their rematch in such emphatic style are all testament to just how hard-hitting Silva is.

Silva’s mat and grappling skills have improved immeasurably since his first fight though. Against Filho he was incredibly easy to take down and, had he been facing a good wrestler or BJJ stylist, would likely have lost very, very quickly. Over the last few years Silva has worked hard on this, an aspect of the sport that clearly holds little appeal for him but which he is smart enough to realize he needs to at least be competitive in. Now the holder of a BJJ Black Belt, much to the chagrin of Helio Gracie, he was able to survive on the mat with Hidehiko Yoshida, even coming shockingly close to securing a triangle choke late in the first round. He’s also shown patience and skill in both Jackson fights and dominated the ground game in his losing effort against Hunt. Still, Silva holds just one win with a submission hold (choking out Dirty Bob Schrijber back in 2000) and remains primarily a Muay Thai fighter who uses a competent ground game to defend himself while constantly looking for knockouts on his feet.

So, we come to Silva’s stamina and chin problems. His detractors have exaggerated both of these but there are valid question marks, at least as far as his chin goes. Silva is a diligent trainer who shows up for his fights in great condition and has gone the distance with Tito Ortiz, Daijiro Matsui, Dan Henderson, Yoshida and Hunt. The demands of Pride’s 10-minute first round and his own frenetic style mean Silva has had to work on his fitness and has made something that appeared to be a major weakness early in his career, into one of his strengths.

However, while a fighter can work on his striking technique, his ground game and his stamina, training his chin to take, absorb and shrug off punishment is another matter entirely. And Silva’s chin remains something of a problem. Aside from his scare in his debut, Silva collapsed under Belfort’s barrage and has been rocked, dropped or shaken by Henderson, Mezger, Jackson and Hunt. Still, aside from those nightmarish 44 seconds with the “Phenom,” nobody has ever KO’d Silva and he’s always recovered from knockdowns or being rocked to continue his fights, and almost always, to win them.

Conclusion:

Some fighters show very little indication of their later success in their debuts. Some instantly look like superstars in the making. Silva is a little different. Aside from his vastly improved stamina and ground game, most of what marks him out as one of the world’s elite fighters was in evidence to some degree or another. However, if someone had asked me, based purely on this one fight whether the demonic looking young skinhead had what it took to dominate his weight class and bludgeon a string of top fighters to defeat, I’d have been very skeptical. I would have picked him to make an impact as one of those guys promoters love to have on their show; a very entertaining but clearly vulnerable fighter capable of putting on a wild slugfest but probably not a future candidate for best in the world. It’s taken a lot of hard work for Silva to progress to the point he’s at today. Well, that along with a nasty looking tattoo on his head, an intense stare down and that weird hand-waggling thing he does before every fight.

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