Anderson Silva

Anderson da Silva (born April 14, 1975) is a Brazilian mixed martial arts fighter. He is the current UFC Middleweight Champion. With 10 consecutive wins, Silva holds the longest active winning streak in the UFC and the record for the longest winning streak in UFC history. Anderson holds a Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira who follows Gracie Lineage through Carlson Gracie, ergo Murilo Bustamante and the Brazilian Top Team.

He currently trains with UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Lyoto Machida through Black House.

Silva is currently ranked as the number one middleweight in the world by multiple MMA publications;

Sherdog and Yahoo! rank Silva as the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

Since 2006 he has been the UFC Middleweight Champion, and he is also the last Cage Rage Middleweight Champion and former Shooto Middleweight Champion. Besides the UFC and Cage Rage, Silva has fought for a number of other MMA promotions including the Pride Fighting Championships, Shooto and Rumble on the Rock. Silva holds notable victories over Dan Henderson, Nate Marquardt, Hayato Sakurai, Carlos Newton, Patrick Côté, Forrest Griffin and Rich Franklin.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is a U.S.-based MMA promotion. Dana White serves as the president of the UFC and Zuffa, LLC (controlled by Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta) owns the company.

Inspired by vale tudo competitions in Brazil, the UFC held its first competition in Denver, Colorado in 1993. Showcasing fighters of different proficiencies?including boxing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, wrestling and Muay Thai, among others?the UFC sought to discover which martial art was the most effective in a real fight. After a period of political backlash, the UFC gradually underwent reform by embracing stricter rules and achieving sanctioning with State Athletic Commissions.

With a cable television deal and expansion into Canada, Europe and new markets within the United States, the UFC has gained in popularity, along with greater mainstream-media coverage. viewers can access UFC programming on pay-per-view television, Spike in the United States and Canada, on ESPN in the United Kingdom as well as in 33 other countries worldwide.

Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full contact combat sport that allows a wide variety of fighting techniques, from a mixture of martial arts traditions and non-traditions, to be used in competitions. The rules allow the use of striking and grappling techniques, both while standing and on the ground. Such competitions allow martial artists of different backgrounds to compete.

The roots of mixed martial arts can be traced back to various mixed style contests that took place throughout Europe, Japan and the Pacific Rim during the early 1900s. Modern MMA competition emerged in 1993 with the founding of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Originally organized with the intention of finding the most effective martial arts for real unarmed combat situations, competitors were pitted against one another with minimal rules for safety. Later promoters adopted many additional rules aimed at increasing safety for competitors and to promote mainstream acceptance of the sport. The name mixed martial arts was coined by one of the developers of these rules, Jeff Blatnick, a former Greco-Roman wrestler and Olympic gold medalist. Following these changes, the sport has seen increased popularity with pay per view reach rivaling boxing and professional wrestling.