Anderson Silva stacks on the pressure to pass guard during training at Black House in Rio de Janeiro on the day he was promoted to black belt by the Nogueira brothers. Photo by Gustavo Aragão/2006.
Today’s birthday boy, our reader Leonardo Luiz Thomaz da Rocha, asked us to put a story together for him as a present. “Comment on Anderson Silva, and how the UFC champ’s Jiu-Jitsu’s going,” he suggested.
The GRACIEMAG.com team felt it was a swell idea, and promptly went off to pick the brains of a handful of Jiu-Jitsu world champions, with official IBJJF gold medals, who have had the pleasure of training with the middleweight kingpin.
The banter ebbs and flows and at one point we tune in to the following gem from a finisher beyond reproach, who we’d rather keep nameless:
“In a nutshell, it’s like this:
“If the spar with Anderson is Jiu-Jitsu, in the gi, I can tap him out about ten times.
“Shed the gi and things get trickier; but I can still catch the Spider like three times.
“Now take off the gi and green light strikes on the ground, especially those jagged elbows of his, and man, nobody can tap the guy out! It’s more likely he puts you through the wringer!”
Does that give you a picture of what’s in store for Stephan Bonnar at UFC Rio?
* Want to read more behind-the-scenes stories from the world of Jiu-Jitsu and the UFC?
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UFC 153
HSBC ARENA, RIO, BRASIL
13 DE OUTUBRO DE 2012
Anderson Silva vs Stephan Bonnar
Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira vs Dave Herman
Erick Silva vs Jon Fitch
Glover Teixeira vs Fabio Maldonado
Phil Davis vs Wagner “Caldeirão” Prado
Demian Maia vs Rick Story
Card Preliminar
Rony “Jason” Mariano vs Sam Sicilia
Diego Brandão vs Joey Gambino
Francisco “Massaranduba” Drinaldo vs Gleison Tibau
Sérgio Moraes vs Renée Forte
Luiz “Banha” Cané vs Chris Camozzi
Cristiano Marcello vs Reza Madadi