Has Wanderlei Silva Reached the End of the Line?
This past weekend, at UFC 132, Tito Ortiz shocked the world when he defeated Ryan Bader and rejuvenated his career. Moments later, another legend’s career came crashing down as Chris Leben left Wanderlei Silva face down on the canvas after just twenty-six seconds. For many MMA fans it was an emotional, bittersweet night that went from a huge peak to a low valley in just a matter of minutes.
We’ve all seen The Axe Murderer stopped before, but never in this fashion. Whether you love him or hate him, it always hurts to see a legend of the sport laying face down on the canvas with the referee standing over him and his butt in the air. In what may have been Wanderlei Silva’s last fight in the UFC, the torch was passed down from the Old School to the New School.
Chris Leben had made it known that he was a fan of Wanderlei and even molded his own fighting style after his. Going into the fight, nobody expected anything less than both men throwing bombs right from the bell and not stopping until one, or both of them lay unconscious on the floor. Unfortunately for Silva, it wasn’t his day. After the fight, Silva took to his Twitter to apologize to his fans, whom he refers to as his friends, and state that he was ashamed for losing.
At the post-fight press conference, Dana White announced that he wanted to have a heart-to-heart meeting with Wanderlei to see how he was feeling and what steps he wanted to take next. Dana also made it known that he felt that Wanderlei had nothing left to prove in the sport and wanted to see him walk away before he sustained any further damage. We’ve seen White go through this not too long ago with his good friend Chuck Liddell, and he hopes Wanderlei will follow suit.
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Aspiring chef turned MMA writer after financial issues prevented me from pursuing my first dream. Ever since I started watching MMA, I've read up about it and talk about it all the time and with the encouragement of family and friends I finally decided to actively pursue a career in writing about it.Subscribe
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