Wanderlei Silva details reunion with Rafael Cordeiro at Kings MMA

When Wanderlei Silva steps into the Octagon next weekend at UFC 139 he will be fighting for more than a victory. Losing six of his last eight fights including a quartet of devastating knockouts, “The Axe Murderer” is out to prove his blade hasn’t dulled as much as critics might believe and that he still has one more title-run left in him.

Silva’s preparation for the November 19 clash with Cung Le has involved spending time at Kings MMA in California where he’s reunited with famed former Chute Boxe trainer Rafael Cordeiro. During his time as part of the Chute Boxe camp Silva excelled into one of the most fearsome competitors in MMA history.

The UFC recently spent some time at Kings MMA where they spoke with student and teacher about their twenty-year relationship.

“My first fight ever was to exchange belts at the gym,” Silva explained in a video promoting the upcoming event. “I was 13 to 14 years old, I had been training for a year, and I was going to earn a new belt. Part of the ceremony was to fight. Chute Boxe had two locations so it was one gym versus the other. At the time I fought using pants because I didn’t have money to buy shorts. My opponent had cool shorts. He was a good fighter. I was super scared to fight him…I just closed my eyes and went for it. I knocked out the guy. Fast, like in thirty seconds.”

UFC 139 is headlined by Dan Henderson duking it out with Mauricio Rua for an opportunity to face the light heavyweight champion in 2012 and also features match-ups such as Martin Kampmann vs. Rick Story and Urijah Faber vs. Brian Bowles.

Check out the entire video with Silva/Cordeiro below:

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

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MMATraining Take: I’m not sure Silva’s time with Cordeiro will have much of an effect on his fight against Le but as a MMA fan I sincerely enjoyed this video. It’s cool to not only see Silva working on technique in the gym but to see two old friends together again, sharing stories of the good ol’ days as it were.