Anderson da Silva (Portuguese pronunciation: ; born April 14, 1975) is a Brazilian mixed martial artist and former UFC Middleweight Champion. Silva held the longest title streak in UFC history, which ended in 2013 after 2,457 days, with 16 consecutive wins and 10 title defenses. He has 13 post-fight bonuses, the second most in UFC history. UFC president Dana White and several mixed-martial-arts publications have called Silva the greatest mixed martial artist of all time. He is currently ranked the #6 contender in official UFC middleweight rankings.
Anderson Silva was born April 14, 1975, a middle child of four. The son of a poverty-stricken family, Silva spent the majority of his childhood with his aunt and uncle, an officer with the Curitiba police force.
Silva first began training jiu-jitsu with neighborhood kids who could afford lessons. He explained his introduction to martial arts in an interview with FIGHT! Magazine: "When I started out, Jiu-Jitsu was really an elite thing in Brazil, and there was some prejudice towards poorer kids, so I had to learn things on my own... Some of my neighbors started doing Jiu-Jitsu, so I started watching it, and then started rolling with them. It wasn’t organized training, but it was better than nothing." By the age of thirteen his family was able to set aside enough money to start him in Tae Kwon Do lessons, from which he moved on to Capoeira, before finally settling on Muay Thai at the age of sixteen.