After a legendary career in the sport of mixed martial arts, Wanderlei (The Axe Murderer) Silva gets to do something he hasn’t done in over 13 years: Fight in the Octagon in front of his home crowd.
“I’m looking forward to winning tomorrow night for Brazil,” the 35-year-old middleweight said Friday to the fans at Estadio Jornalista Felipe Drumond in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, at the weigh-ins for Saturday night’s UFC 147, headlined by his 190-pound catchweight bout against Rich (Ace) Franklin.
Cheered enthusiastically by his proud partisans his entire time on the stage, Silva weighed in at 188 pounds for his first fight in his native country altogether in nearly a dozen years. The last time the former Pride middleweight champion fought in Brazil was at a Vale Tudo event in August 2000, defeating Todd Medina by knockout from a barrage of knees at the 39-second mark, characteristic of the way he often dismantled opponents.
That fight came four months after his last appearance of his first stint with the UFC, a decision loss to Tito Ortiz in Tokyo for the light-heavyweight championship at UFC 25. Silva would then spend the next seven years fighting exclusively in Japan for the rival Pride organization. That’s where he made his biggest mark, capturing the championship over Japanese star Kazushi Sakuraba the next year and at one point going unbeaten in 18 straight appearances.
After losing his 205-pound title to Dan Henderson by third-round knockout in February 2007, he returned to the UFC, but has only seen moderate success since, going 3-4 overall. Yet he has continued to thrill fans with his high-octane approach in the cage, earning three Fight of the Night honours (including a Fight of the Year bout with Chuck Liddell in his return fight) as well as one Knockout of the Year in his next fight in 2008 when he finished Keith Jardine in 36 seconds at UFC 84.
One of those Fight of the Night nods was his first meeting with Franklin at UFC 99 in June 2009, where Silva maintained his pressure on Franklin despite being cut in the first round, only to succumb to Franklin’s calculated wrestling.
Silva’s original opponent Saturday was the man he fought in his only previous UFC fight in his home country, fellow Brazilian Vitor Belfort. After serving as opposing coaches on the first season of The Ultimate Fighter Brazil, the two were set to square off for the first time since they met in Silva’s organizational debut on Oct. 16, 1998 at UFC Brazil in Sao Paulo, the promotion’s first and only event in the South American country until its recent return last August. However, Belfort suffered an injury in training and was replaced a few weeks ago by Franklin.
The American, who had requested that the bout be contested at the catchweight due to the reduced timeframe for preparation since he was originally scheduled to compete two weeks later at UFC 148, was right on the 190-pound number Friday. Franklin, a veteran and well-respected fighter in his own right, received a mixture of boos and cheers from the Brazilian crowd.
“It’s an honour to be here because basically this is where MMA started,” Franklin said after making weight. “I’m in Wanderlei’s backyard so the reception wasn’t quite as bad as I thought it would be. It’s an honour to fight Wanderlei once again, he’s a legend in the sport, this is going to be a tough rematch, instead of 15 minutes, we’ve got 25. It’s going to be a hard fight.”
Mike Russow, the only other American on the card that is filled with Brazilians, weighed in at 248 pounds for his heavyweight bout against Fabricio Werdum, who hit the scale at 246. Also on the main card will be the two TUF Brazil finals. Totally unknown by those outside Brazil or who didn’t watch the first international edition of the reality show, Rony (Jason) Mariano Bezerra tried to leave an impression by playing off his nickname and donning a “Friday the 13th” mask prior to weighing at 146 pounds for his featherweight TUF title bout against Godofredo (Pepey) de Oliveira (145). In the battle for the middleweight crown, Cezar (Mutante) Ferreira (184) takes on Sergio (Serginho) Moraes (185), who was an injury replacement for Daniel Sarafian.
Only one fighter missed weight. John (Macapa) Teixeira was four pounds heavy at 150 for his featherweight contest against Hugo (Wolverine) Viana and had two hours to cut down to the 146-pound limit.
Here are the full weigh-in results:
Main card (pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)
Wanderlei Silva (188) vs. Rich Franklin (190)
Cezar “Mutante” Ferreira (184) vs. Sergio “Serginho” Moraes (185)
Rony “Jason” Mariano Bezerra (146) vs. Godofredo “Pepey” de Oliveira (145)
Fabricio Werdum (246) vs. Mike Russow (248)
Yuri Alcantara (146) vs. Hacran Dias (146)
Preliminary card (Sportsnet, 8 p.m. ET)
Rodrigo Damm (146) vs. Anistavio “Gasparzinho” Medeiros (146)
Francisco “Massaranduba” Drinaldo (183) vs. Delson “Pe de Chumbo” Heleno (185)
John “Macapa” Teixeira (150)* vs. Hugo “Wolverine” Viana (145)
Leonardo “Macarrao” Mafra Teixeira (182) vs. Thiago de Oliveira Perpetuo (184)
Unaired prelims (Facebook, 7 p.m. ET)
Marcos Vinicius “Vina” Borges Pancini (146) vs. Wagner “Galeto” Campos (145)
Felipe Arantes (146) vs. Milton Vieira (146)
