Samurai MMA held its inaugural show on the weekend in Culver City, Calif., and UFC middleweight and MMA legend Wanderlei Silva was in attendance cornering Wand Fight team fighter Michael Madrid.
Karyn Bryant of MMA H.E.A.T spoke to Silva about his upcoming bout with Cung Le at UFC 139 and his plans for the remainder of his legendary career.
Silva thanked the local promotion and gave a solid endorsement of why small, regional MMA is vital to the sport.
“Congratulations to the guys at Samurai Pro, I think today born the new good event you know. I saw that last fight, amazing, amazing.”
When asked if he remembers his days in the small shows, Silva gave a legend’s endorsement on why the availability of these shows are essential.
“Of course, we need to have events like this that give opportunities to the new fighters to show your work and, I’m so glad we have new events to give opportunities to new fighters.”
Bryant then asked what advice he passes down to young fighters before they step in the cage to fight.
“We need to make a fighter calm. Sometimes the first fight stays in your mind. Sometimes we thinking about bad things and not positive things. So, it’s thinking about your positive things now and try to make the fight in your game. Pray to God, then let’s go!”
“I pray to God all the time. God makes me calm, makes me focus.”
The conversation then turned to Cung Le.
“Really good opponent I studied his game. I think he has the best kicks in MMA. I start training the defense of that kicking and he’s great. I hope we give a great show to the fans in San Jose.”
The fight with Cung Le aside, many fans are wondering how much longer “The Axe Murderer” plans to keep training and fighting. Bryant hinted that fans are concerned about his health.
“I just came back from the doctor and make all checks and doctor told me ‘the guy can fight for 20 more years.’ I’m really healthy. I’m trying to pass Couture now.” he chuckled.
“Couture stop at 48, had a big fight so…”
“I’m so happy for my career. I can’t tell you one, two, three, four, 10, 11, 12, we don’t know. You never know about tomorrow but right now I’m fighting for two fights.”
Dwight Wakabayashi is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA and correspondent for MMACanada.net.
Catch him on Facebook and Twitter at wakafightermma.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com