I remember watching Anderson Silva fight Dan Henderson at UFC 82. I had never really watched MMA, but I looked up to Dan Henderson. He was a wrestler, like me, but also a tough, powerful mixed martial artist. A lot of wrestlers like him were having success in MMA, so I started watching to see what it was all about.
And I watched Anderson Silva completely dismantle him. I was blown away. I was hooked. I started watching that fight with one idol, and I came out with a new one. I couldn’t help watching Silva and thinking, I wanna fight this guy …
I started watching all of Silva’s fights. I watched the fight in which he knocked out Chris Leben, a guy people said couldn’t be knocked out, and I thought, I wanna fight this guy, and I wanna beat him.