Wanderlei Silva is a wrecking machine, a block of pure muscle and aggression. He’s spent the better part of the last 15 years separating the world’s toughest men from consciousness, whether in a Brazilian night club, the legendary Pride ring or the hallowed UFC Octagon.
The venue seems, frankly, irrelevant. Wanderlei Silva would fight you in front of 50,000 people, but he’d be just as happy throwing down on the subway, your mom’s 50th birthday party or smack dab in the middle of the matinee showing of Rock of Ages.
In a sport filled to the brim with violent and scary men, Silva is the scariest. He has an aura of violence. He doesn’t just commit unspeakably monstrous acts in the ring—he exudes malice. When you fight Wanderlei Silva, you face more than a man. You go nose-to-nose with a legend.
Here are ten reasons why he’s entered the exulted stratosphere of legend.