In a recent interview, mixed martial arts UFC former middleweight champion Anderson Silva admitted that he took his injury as a sign from God.
It started when he was fighting with Chris Weidman. He broke his leg during the fight and that was when realized that the injury happened to teach him something. Silva admits that he is a man of deep faith and this helps him view unfortunate events in his career in a different light.
In his interview with Catherine Wagley, the representative for Citizen of Humanity magazine, he admitted that he did cannot recall every detail about his fights. He said that his fights were too quick to recall, but when had his fight with Weidman and had his injury, he remembered things quite well.
He said that while he was busy painfully clutching his leg, he remembered his manager, Ed Soares, and his trainer, Rogerio Camões, rushed to his side. He went on admitting that while he was in a state of shock, a lot of important things came to his mind. He was worried about his leg, his family, if he could fight again, or worse, if he could even walk again. He even questioned God why did He let the tragedy happen to him. “When they allowed my manager in, I still remember I said: ‘Boss, why did God allow this to happen to me? Why did God do this to me?’ In that moment, I thought it was all over,” he continued.
Silva took the chance to reflect about his career when he had this injury. He said that when he lost an MMA fight for the first time, he concluded that it was because he was not focusing enough. He admitted he was too busy being unhappy with himself, with the sport that he was playing, with those who were organizing fights, with how celebrities lose their shine and eventually fall into a downward spiral, and even with the fights itself.
“The second fight, I was completely ready for. God gave me a signal there: ‘Dude, you gotta stop. You have to stop. I gave you a sign; you didn’t understand…’ But more than that, it was about being able to see yourself, to see yourself, which is very hard, and realize, ‘Darn, I’ve been doing everything wrong.’”
When he had his second fight, he said that he was completely ready this time around. However, he realized that God was giving him a signal to stop. He revealed, “God gave me a signal there: ‘Dude, you gotta stop. You have to stop. I gave you a sign; you didn’t understand.”. Aside from this, he said that he was able to unfold the hard part of his journey, and that was to realize he was doing everything wrong.
As a successful MMA champion, it was not surprising that eventually there are things that had to be sacrificed. Silva admitted that because he was busy with his career, he did not have the time to live his life, spend time with his wife and children, or even to live his reality. He further added, “People don’t care if you’re injured, if your head is in the right place. They want you to make it happen; the show must go on, and it has to be real. But this isn’t real. For me, it was never real. The system takes away the truth from you, takes fighting away from you as something you love.”
Silva has proven his record over the years. Maybe it is indeed time to enjoy what he worked hard for and live his life according to his desire.