Wanderlei Silva is an old school legend of the sport who is well known for his very hard sparring practices and in this recent video it looks like Wanderlei is back to his old ways.
Wanderlei Silva, also known by his moniker of ‘The Axe Murderer,’ is the former longtime Pride middleweight champion of the world who electrified audiences and fans for years with his ferocious fighting style.
His aggressive style was honed while training under the legendary Chute Boxe team based in Brazil. Chute Boxe was well known for their super hard sparring sessions which was actually quite common for the time.
Nowadays many MMA gyms are moving away from the super hard sparring due to the wear and tear associated with it. Some teams are still doing it the old school way though like we see here from Wanderlei and longtime training partner Andre Dida.
There are a couple schools of thought out there on hard sparring. Some say you should train full clip as if it were a fight to best prepare you for the competition. Others say it can have a negative impact on a fighter’s longevity and make them ‘chinny’ so to speak.
Perhaps it is more of a preference thing as Wanderlei, now 40, is getting up there in age though he hasn’t fought in 4 years now. He is expected to fight longtime rival Chael Sonnen in his return to action as well as Bellator debut in the main event of Bellator 180 on June 24, 2017.
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ABOUT WANDERLEI SILVA:
Wanderlei César da Silva (born July 3, 1976), nicknamed “The Axe Murderer” and “Cachorro Louco” (Portuguese for “mad dog”), is a Brazilian-American mixed martial artist who has competed in Japan’s Pride Fighting Championships and the American-based Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He holds the record for the most wins, knockouts, title defenses, and longest winning streak in PRIDE history. He is the former PRIDE Middleweight Champion, and the 2003 PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix Tournament Champion. He is currently signed with Rizin Fighting Federation. [Source: Wiki]
