There’s not much to say about Anderson Silva that hasn’t been said over the last seven days, and every word of praise was well deserved for one of the greats of the sport, who ended his UFC career as a true warrior and martial artist. So I’ll tell one of my favorite stories about “The Spider,” one that illustrates that in the hardest of sports, he still found a way to find joy in it. So…back when he made his 2006 debut against Chris Leben, the UFC was still finding its way into the mainstream, so there weren’t any post-fight press conferences streamed across the universe. In other words, if you wanted to talk to a fighter after the event, you had to go to the locker rooms. And after a 49-second KO win, I most certainly wanted to talk to the UFC newcomer. We went through the usual questions and I got the usual responses from Silva through his translator / manager Ed Soares. The final question was about Silva’s striking, which was next level. He said it all came from hard work. Okay, it wasn’t going to shake up the internet, but I got my quotes. As I thanked him and turned to leave, he tapped me on the shoulder and said something to Ed in Portuguese in a low tone, as if revealing a secret. Ed laughed and translated. “You want to know the secret of my striking? I’m one of the X-Men.” We all laughed, but the big comic book fan was not lying. Over the next seven years, he looked and fought like a Superhero. And even when he hit some rough patches after losing his title, when he was in the Octagon, he looked like he was loving every minute of it. That enthusiasm was infectious, and it’s what I’ll always remember about covering his career in the UFC.
