Wanderlei Silva: Fighting for the Win or for the Fans?
by Anton Tabuena on Jun 11, 2009 3:34 PM EDT
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PrintWanderlei Silva talks to mmajunkie about deciding to fight for the win, or for the fans:
This is a hard decision for me..
People just want to have their arm raised up at the end of the fight. They forget about the show. But for me, it's different. I talked to my wife about it last week. I don't have depression if I win or lose because I fight every week. I fight every day in the gym. But I need to win.
I don't know what everybody's motivation is, but for me, I feel like I'm an artist. This is my presentation. People come to watch my show. For that, I have to open up my game. I'm going in there to hit, and the guy is trying to hit me. This is the emotion of the fight. I put my life on the line. This is the emotion you have to feel and why I think my fans support me win or lose. But I don't think everyone understands this.
It's hard because if you win, you're good, and if you lose, you're bad. But I think I'm starting to have a different mind about this. It's not always a show. It is a sport, and the results are important. The fans just like the winners. That's the reality of it.
It's hard. In my heart, I know I really, really need to win this fight. But in the fight, it's hard to control my emotions. We're artists, but to be a professional artist, we have to control our emotions.
HT: MMAJunkie.comWe're going to have a war, and there's going to be a lot of blood. The fans are going to see from me a much different Wanderlei. I'm going to be much more aggressive. I'm prepared for everything, and I really, really want him to hit me first. After that, I'm going to kill him.
For now, I need the result. I'm going to need to fight for the win, not the show. But I'm saying this now: After the start of the fight, it's incredible the power the crowd has inside me. The crowd shakes my heart.
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i wouldve made this a fanshot
but the quote was very long and i felt that if i shortened it, i wouldn’t be able to capture the conflict wanderlei has within him…
he knows he needs to play it smart and win the fight badly, but wanderlei is just the kind of fighter who feeds of the energy of the crowd and goes wild with it..
or am i wrong and this is better suited as a fanshot?
by Anton Tabuena on Jun 11, 2009 12:18 PM EDT up reply actions
its actually a sketch by evan shoman.
by Anton Tabuena on Jun 11, 2009 12:33 PM EDT up reply actions
To me this is on the same page as the Anderson/Leites thing. The sport allows fighters to have very ambiguous goals going into the cage. Some fighters and fans take MMA as a sport, where winning is the foremost objective. Other fighters and fans believe it is a fighter’s duty to be exciting, sell tickets and thus be a business asset for their employers.
Personally, I think it’s degrading to the SPORT of MMA to take the latter approach. But regardless of what I, a confirmed “keyboard warrior,” believe, the fighters are in a position where they are allowed to make the decision themselves and we can see how it plays out. Guys like Silva and GSP are going to game-plan as much as humanly possible because what they’ve accomplished thus far is of great significance currently and will be looked upon in the future with admiration. On the opposing side of the coin you have guys like Wanderlei, Marcus Davis (I daresay he is exciting, but that’s just me), and Chris Leben who don’t really seem to care too much about a victory. They think their job is to go out there and put on a good show, which is unfortunate because I stopped watching Pro Wrestling when I was 10 years old. But akin to the current champions, guys like Wandy have made their own legacy from nothing but moderate success, an entertaining fighting style and a quality personality.
I know Wandy talks a lot about wanting to put on a show, but I don’t think it’s because he wants to be an asset to his employer (though he does make the “that’s our job” statements) as much as Wanderlei is kinda old school Brazilian in his approach. He’s from an era when you fought for the pride of your school, for the community of people that supported you, and when anything that even resembled backing down was a disgrace. I don’t think that it’s the “pro-wrestling” mentality as much as a feeling of symbiosis with the audience that harkens back to the old vale tudo days – giving them non-stop aggression which gets them excited and in turn feeds the fighter.
I could be wrong, this is all speculation, but with guys like Wandy I think we have to factor in the historical-cultural differences in the perception of the purpose of the fighter, the relationship between fighter and audience, and the definition of a “successful” fight.
"I'm AJB and I endorse this nut-puncher."
by AJB on Jun 11, 2009 7:08 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Man, hypocrite much?
After blasting Anderson for weeks about fighting tactically and boasting about his own bravado, he is going to come out with this? This is on level as BJ criticizing GSP for tapping just before losing to him by quitting between rounds.
I hope Wanderlei gets KOed hard by Franklin so he will retire already and stop making an ass of himself
reading comprehension fail?
he said he’s fighting for the win.. fighting smarter doesnt necessarily mean he’s fighting defensively.. he never said anything about laying back and fighting tentatively.. he even said:
The fans are going to see from me a much different Wanderlei. I’m going to be much more aggressive. I’m prepared for everything, and I really, really want him to hit me first. After that, I’m going to kill him.
by Anton Tabuena on Jun 11, 2009 9:24 PM EDT up reply actions
getting the point fail is more like it
Right after the fight he said he goes out there to put on a show for the fans every time, he doesn’t care about winning and losing. Now he is saying “I’m going to need to fight for the win, not the show”, the very next fight? I don’t care if that means you have to fight more aggressively or more defensively, its playing for the win and that is what Wanderlei criticized Anderson for
He criticized Anderson for fighting JUST for the win.. There’s a diff you know..
Silva fought tentatively and (at least in wandys eyes) fought just to eek out a decision.. That is what he hated Anderson for, and I am pretty sure he won’t be doing that, so that doesn’t make him a hypocrite.
by Anton Tabuena on Jun 12, 2009 2:40 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
the balance
I think its a balancing act between excitment and success and its true of most if not all sports.
Take football (soccer) the teams who play free flowing/attacking football get alot of viewers and support from the neutrals where as the more defensive and ‘boring’ teams don’t. The difference here is that the teams will always have a following regardless of their asthetic prowess becuase of geographical associations, Fighter don’t get that luxur becoz their individuals but most teams will still try and be exciting becuase that gets them more fans and more cash.
Wandi is lucky that for many years he was one of the most exciting and successful fighters in the game.
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