Obrigado Anderson você será sempre o campeão e obrigado por todas a memórias que você nos deu! Thanks Anderson you will always be our champion and thanks for the Memories.

The End of an Era

Anderson is probably the sole reason I fell in love with this sport.  Everything this man did was worthy of a highlight real.  Even his losses are some of the greatest moments in MMA. I'm talking of coarse about the flying heel hook delivered by Ryo Chonan of coarse.  Anderson just had a flair for entertainment.  Even when he was in pride the way he moon danced his way into the ring meant he just had this aura about him.  He is known for his creativity when he fights.  We say martial arts because it is an art form in itself.  The way guys like Anderson move in itself is art.  He doesn't look like he's fighting.  He looks like he ebbs and flows like water and it was especially appealing to me because I realized how little was wasted in his movements.  I in turn tried to emulate this when I fought in Karate tournaments...successful on several occasions. Every MMA fan probably know about the Tony Frickland knockout, but to see Anderson focus on one movement for months unbeknownst to his trainers and then to pull off that weird upward elbow KO was just fascinating to me.  He is an innovator in the sport too, after Anderson knocked out Vitor Belfort with the front kick the middle of the guard, everyone began to use that technique while fighting.  He resurrected many of the long forgotten traditional martial arts techniques and as a practitioner for over ten years it brought a smile to my face.  He is so amazing that he would jump right into your wheelhouse and beat you with it.  When he submitted Travis Lutter, one of the most decorated jiu-jitsu practitioners at the time.  It shocked the entire world and everyone began to open their eyes.  His foray into the light heavy weight division was mesmerizing knocking out both James Irvin and Forest Griffin in what I would like to call the closest think I have ever seen to NEO.  He stood on the cage and invited Stephan Bonnar to hit him and then put him down with a knee to the solarplexes.  What can be said that hasn't already be said to Anderson Silva.  He was dominant for nearly nine years in his division.  To see this happen to Anderson is devastating not only to fans, but to MMA in general because we will be deprived of witnessing the mastery and creativity that this gentleman was.  He is now 38, if he is to heal correctly it may be a year or two before he is ready to fight again by this time he will be in his forties.  I'm not saying that this can't be done and I'm not counting him out, but only time will tell if we will ever see the greatest martial artist of all time step back into the octagon....

Thank you/Muito Obrigado Anderson