Why So Blu?

Anderson Silva Press Conference

If you’re going to do something, you might as well do it right.  With the combined efforts of CageStars, Gentile Promotions, Voo Doo Custom Sportsbikes, Quaker Steak & Lube, and Roctagon Entertainment, the unified team secured the visit of UFC Middleweight Champion and fan favorite Anderson Silva for the June 26^th multi-bout event at the Quaker Steak & Lube in Cleveland, Ohio suburb of Sheffield Village.  No, Silva wasn’t jumping in the cage this past weekend.  Instead, the champ was in town to lend his support for the event and promote the sport of mixed martial arts fighting.  Silva, with the aid of an interpreter, sat down with the media on the day before the big event along with Voo Doo Sportsbikes President, Rob Uecker, and a representative from charitable organization involved with the festivities, Freely Freely. 

The first question of the day saw one reporter asking Silva how much enjoys coming to see his sport grow and watch the amateur fighters in action.  Silva responded, “It makes me really happy to come to a city like this.  It’s got a great energy.  It’s a beautiful city.  It makes me happy to be involved with some of these smaller events because at the end of the day that’s where I started was in one of these small events.  It brings me back to the roots of when I started and I’m very happy to be involved.” 

The next inquiry jumped straight into the mix of day at the office for Silva.  As one journalist inquired, “How did it feel to knock out Forrest Griffin with a step-back jab?”  With a humbly shy grin, Silva said, “It made me happy, you know, to be able to go out there and win like that.  The night before I was watching some fights of Mohammed Ali and Roy Jones Jr. and it inspired me and the night of the fight I went out there and was able to knock him out moving backwards like they did.” 

With celebrities or athletes, the inevitable yet vital question always arises of what the guest of honor can recommend for kids pursuing the guest’s career path.  Anderson Silva replied with a very sound and priceless reply, “The advice I would give a young fighter would be the same advice that I would give my kids, that I would give my students, and that’s to study.  To study, stay in school and make sure you complete all your academics and the other advice that I would give is to find an academy, if you’re training, find an academy that really teaches the philosophy of martial arts.  Because I believe that with the growth of this sport, I think the philosophy of martial arts is being forgotten and is being left by the wayside.  I mean people are going in there and really wanting to just become a fighter and fight and not really learn the philosophies of martial arts that make you a better person, that teaches you self control and I think that’s really what should be important.”

After some additional discussion, I directed a few of my own questions the champ’s way.  Before we get to that, I have to say that after meeting with Silva, the man is not affected by the star status he has achieved.  The octagon hero is down to earth, honest, accommodating, and very gracious to his fan base.  Let’s see what the Muay Thai expert had to say… 

WSB:   The UFC has obviously gotten very big, it’s very successful.  But being on the ground level, what challenges do you still foresee with the league to progress?

Silva:  Yeah, I feel one of the biggest drawbacks is the way sometimes, the way certain people promote the fights.  You know, this is a technical sport, it’s martial arts and you have to promote the technical aspect of it.  Sometimes, the promoters, the way that it gets translated, is people want to see brawls.  I think that’s what’s kind of making it a little bit more difficult to break more into the mainstream is because I think they need to promote it as more of a technical sport.  And granted, it is a contact sport, but at the end of the day it’s still a sport and I think people need to see that more than just the contact and the blood of it. 

WSB:  Are there any aspects of Capoeira within Brazilian Jiu Jitsu?

Silva:  Not really.  I think each discipline as its own characteristics, so I don’t think there’s anything too related other than them both being Brazilian. 

As for Silva’s new toy, the Spider Bike that was made exclusively for him courtesy of Voo Doo Custom Sportsbikes, President Rob Uecker had the following to say, “Okay, well the bike had to come out being a champion, pretty much just like Anderson is.  We got Suzuki Corporate involved and they gave us one of the first fifty production Hayabusas.  This is one of the first fifty that was ever made.  So it’s a very special bike in the background.  It was delivered to my shop and the inspiration from the bike comes actually comes from Anderson, Anderson’s website, his colors, his fighting style, everything that’s involved with him is in that motorcycle; the gauges, the wheels, his names, a little bit on the rotors.  The feeling of the bike emulates what I thought Anderson was all about; smooth, very tactical, it’ll sneak up on you and you really look in the corners and boy there’s a lot of very detailed pieces and parts on the bike.  I thought it was great to work with Ed (Silva’s interpreter) and with Anderson and just get some input before we built the bike, but quite honestly, I did whatever I wanted to do with it and it came out the way it came out.  When Anderson saw it, I don’t think I could have made anything better.” 

Part of the CageStars Team with the Spider Bike – from left to right: Paul Jordan, Joe Gentile, Lorenzo Gentile, Louis Kayatin Jr.

Silva did state that as much as he would like to, the reality is he will most likely never ride his Spider Bike.  However, he did point out that this thing is pure art.  Believe it or not, he already has a glass case in his house to put the bike on display.  “I’d rather ride motorcycles in a video game,” the fighter joked.  As for Voo Doo’s next mission, the company is building a bike for rapper T.I. that will be unveiled in Las Vegas in mid-August. 

For more information on Anderson Silva, the UFC, or any of the aforementioned organizations, please visit their websites below:

http://www.spidersilva.com/

http://www.ufc.com/

http://www.cagestars.com/

http://voodoomoto.com/

http://www.quakersteakandlube.com/

Freely Freely is a non-profit organization that provides used furniture to full-time employed, low income families as well as those recently laid off from full-time work:

http://freelyfreely.com/

 

Anderson Silva with WhySoBlu’s photographer extraordinaire, Scott Morrison

 Photography courtesy of Scott T. Morrison / Discovery Photo