What REALLY happened between Anderson Silva & Steven Seagal
Back in 2010, Anderson Silva made a strange move by bringing Aikido black belt Steven Seagal into his training team. This was largely viewed as a publicity stunt at the time but regardless, Silva would go on to defeat Lyoto Machida at UFC 126 by knocking him out. Specifically, Silva scored a knockout with a brutal front kick. This led Seagal to comment on the kick, adding “There is a signature kick that I’ve taught them that they’ve knocked champions out with and won world championships with.”
In true Seagal style, he was deadly serious and equally sure in himself. Ironically, as Seagal is a supposed master in Aikido – this means that his training would not involve kicks. This is because striking is largely redundant in Aikido, with kicks in particular not being a part of its resume. Nonetheless, Seagal ran with it and was happy to take credit for helping Silva claim victory. In fairness, it wasn’t just Seagal either.
In the press conference after his victory, Silva claimed that “Steven Seagal helped me perfect that kick. That was a kick we were working on before I stepped in.” As a result, it’s no surprise that Seagal took credit for Silva’s brutal kick. So, was this actually the case or was Anderson Silva just being a clever troll? To start with, it’s no secret that Silva has a great array of kicks in his arsenal. For instance, he is best known for his Muay Thai so it’s no surprise that his kicks are dangerous. Secondly, he’d already proven this long before his Machida victory.
However, in a future video, Silva seemed to mock Seagal’s Aikido whilst joking around with his training partners. Speaking honestly, this version of truth seems to make the most sense. At the same time, giving credit to Silva, he has often been open minded when it comes to martial arts and has even incorporated Wing Chun into MMA, which is something many are quick to write off within cage fighting. Nonetheless, if the likelihood is that Anderson Silva was joking around when it comes to Seagal – he seemed to do it really well and never let the joke slip!
