Seven months after a disappointing loss in his
Meca World Vale Tudo debut,
Anderson
Silva finally showed in the ring a little of what he had been
doing with his training colleagues at Chute Boxe.
Meca 4, held on Dec. 16, 2000 at the
Circulo Militar gymnasium in Chute Boxe’s home base of Curitiba,
pitted the local powerhouse against representatives of luta-livre
from around the country. Alongside future superstar Silva, the card
featured
Jose “Pele”
Landi-Jons,
Assuerio
Silva,
Pedro Otavio,
Murilo
“Ninja” Rua and
Daniel
Acacio on a night that Chute Boxe prevailed, 4 victories to
2.
Right after “Pele” defeated
Jorge “Macaco”
Patino for the second time at WVC 4 in March of 1997, he told
me in a interview, “Take note. I’m starting the Chute Boxe era. In
Curitiba we have one like me in every division.” From that year on
I started to fly from Rio de Janeiro to Parana frequently, and it
was covering the sparrings of Chute Boxe in the late 90s that I was
introduced to new aces like
Wanderlei
Silva,
Rafael
Cordeiro, Murilo “Ninja,” and a skinny, smiling guy who split
his time between hard Chute Boxe training and his day job as a
McDonald’s cashier. Even though he was not yet able to train
full-time,
Anderson
Silva already had the attention of his teammates.
“Anderson is one of the most technical guys we have here. The day
he puts into practice in the rings what he does in the gym,
everyone will be stunned,” a very disappointed Sergio Cunha told me
after seeing his talented pupil lose a decision to
Luiz Azeredo
at
Meca 1 in May 2000. In the
following months, Silva would prove Cunha’s words with two
impressive knockouts. First, Silva finished local fighter
Jose Barreto
with a head kick at Meca 2 in August, but it was at Meca 4 that he
finally introduced himself as a local idol to the Curitiba
audience, facing the experienced
Claudionor da Silva Fontinelle. The luta-livre representative
had dozens of fights, including an openweight tournament where he
had made it to a semifinal against vale tudo legend
Casemiro
Nascimento “Rei Zulu” Martins, who outweighed him by over 60
pounds.
Fontinelle had no chance against Silva, however. After hitting
beautiful sequences of kicks and punches, the Chute Boxer cornered
Fontinelle on the ropes and ended the fight with a pinpoint knee at
4:35. Silva’s showing ended up earning him an invitation to fight
in Japan three months later. After beating Tetsuyo Kato by
unanimous decision in his Japanese debut, Cunha’s prospect would
win the
Shooto under-76 kg (167-pound) belt from
champion
Hayato
Sakurai—just eight months after Meca 4.
It was only after winning the belt that Silva quit his job and
started to dedicate himself fully to training. As a part-timer,
Anderson had already excelled; when he started dedicating himself
fully to MMA, he could finally start showing the world his genius.
After his showings at Meca and Shooto, Silva was invited to fight
in the biggest show in the world:
Pride Fighting Championships. At
Pride 21, in June of 2002, he made his
debut in great style, facing
Alex
Stiebling, who had earned the nickname “The Brazilian Killer”
for his string of consecutive wins over
Milton
Bahia,
Leandro
Ribeiro,
Luiz
Claudio das Dores,
Allan Goes,
Wallid
Ismail and
Angelo
Araujo. Despite giving up 20 pounds to Stiebling, it took under
two minutes for Silva to fell the American with a perfect shin to
the forehead. Thus was one of the greatest geniuses in the history
of MMA introduced to the world.
“Pele”: The Showman Returns Home
Back at Meca 4, the event where Silva’s bout was the third fight of
the night, the big star was Landi-Jons. Considered by Chute Boxe
head Rudimar Fedrigo himself to be the main person responsible for
making the gym’s name nationally recognized, “Pele” always had idol
status in Curitiba, but he hadn't fought in his city for a long
time. Fedrigo had the idea of brightening up the Meca 4 card by
bringing the pupil to face
Waldir
“Diamante Negro” dos Anjos from Bahia, a student of Ricardo
Carvalho. The nearly 2,000 people present at the Circulo Militar
gymnasium were on their feet to greet their biggest local idol.
The Bahian started by taking “Pele” down and trying to hit him from
half guard, but soon Landi-Jons got up and, pushed by his crowd,
started to dictate the rhythm of the fight. The brave Bahian even
tried to exchange blows with the Cuban until, eight minutes into
the fight, he received a kick that fractured his rib, leading him
to ask the referee to interrupt the fight.
Acacio Wins and Receives Invitation to Represent Chute
Boxe
The representatives of luta-livre did not return to Rio winless,
however.
Aritano
Silva Barbosa, a student of
Sergio
“Formiga” Oliveira opened the card by completely canceling the
muay thai of
Gildo Lima.
After taking him to the ground, Barbosa concluded the fight with a
keylock at 4 minutes, 12 seconds of the first round. Aritano’s
master, “Formiga,” was not so lucky. After completely dominating
the first round against newcomer
Daniel Lima,
getting to mount on two occasions, Oliveira ended up being knocked
out at 2:30 of the second round with an accurate knee. “Formiga”
suffered an exposed fracture on his nose and left the ring on a
stretcher.
Another luta-livre representative that disappointed the local
audience was
Daniel
Acacio. After putting on a show of takedowns on
Nilson de
Castro at Meca 1, Acacio made another excellent display in
Chute Boxe’s house, facing another top representative of the team,
Silvio de
Souza. After landing excellent takedowns on “Urutum,” Acacio
submitted him with a keylock at 8:07 of the first round. Acacio’s
dominance over two big names in Chute Boxe ended up earning him an
invitation to come and live in Curitiba and join Chute Boxe. A few
weeks after Meca 4, Acacio moved to Curitiba with his wife and two
kids and became one of the most important members of the team, even
fighting in Pride.
Assuerio Silva Defeats “The Pedro,” Scores 4- 2 for Chute
Boxe
Making his debut as a Chute Boxe representative after two fine
displays at Meca, the 6-foot, 220-pound
Assuerio
Silva was unable to put his muay thai into practice against the
experienced, 6-foot-3 luta-livre representative Otavio. Always
looking for a clinch, “The Pedro” abused the technique of turning
his back to avoid falling into his opponent's guard. After cooking
Silva throughout the first round, Otavio ended up falling into an
uncomfortable position at the beginning of the second, with the
opponent on his back hitting him with elbows. Otavio asked for a
disqualification stoppage, claiming that Silva had hit his neck,
but referee Miguel Repanas disagreed and declared Silva the winner.
With that final victory, Chute Boxe ended the night celebrating a
4-2 victory.