Legendaren Wanderlei Silva återvänder till Japan och Saitama Super Arena för match mot Brian Stann på UFC on Fuel 8 den 3 mars.
Silva hade sin storhetstid i den japanska organisationen PRIDE och i intervjun ovan inför den kommande matchen prisar han den japanska publiken för sin unika karaktär.
”The Japanese public is unique. Most people comment on that they are very quiet. Something that many people don’t know about but Wanderlei Silva taught the public to cheer. One day, I was watching an event there with 22,000 people and during the fight, I could hear a cell phone ringing. I asked my coach, ’Is that a cell phone ringing?’ He said, ’Yes, that is a cell phone.’ But with the Pride fights, we succeeded at doing a good job, and we had great fights. Fights full of excitement. And with that the fans started cheering more. You could see the improvement as the public was being reeducated. Because Pride was the first event at that level and size. It was a unique moment in the history of the sport.
Japan has a different atmosphere, a different energy. I’ll be tasting that energy again on March 3.”
På den japanska galan återvänder även fler av PRIDE:s forna stjärnor i Mark Hunt och Takanori Gomi.
