source: http://www.tatame.com.br/2007/10/01/Anderson-Silva

The middleweight champion from Curitiba and Black House athlete, Anderson Silva spoke exclusively to TATAME about his training for his upcoming fight at UFC 77, October 20th in Cincinnati, U.S.A and tells us how he divides his time between his preparation in Curitiba and Rio de Janeiro. Aside from telling us about the newest team from Curitiba and commenting on the recent and future Brazilian debuts on the UFC, Anderson also spoke about a possible confrontation, to decide who’s the best man in the world in the middleweight division, between himself and his friend Paulão Filho. Read the entire interview below:

How’s your preparation to face Rich Rich Franklin in UFC 77?

I’m working hard, training hard, not to be surprised, I look forward to having a good fight again…. I gotta work hard.

Do you think he’s training to pull something different, try some surprise?

There’s always some surprise, we have to train our weak points and I think he will train on his. I’m preparing myself to have a good fight and to fight with best, so I think Rich Franklin is an excellent fighter, but we have been showing that to stay on top you have to keep training and training to try to get as many wins as possible and make history as the fighter that stayed the longest without losing.

Do you have a new team?

It’s the Killer Bee Muay Thai College, a new team we are putting together here, working alongside with Black House. Me, Vidal, Master Diógenes, we’re working for this team to grow and it’s a joint venture with Black House, we’re together, the important thing is the union we have, that’s the most important.

But are you still with Black House?

I keep representing my team, my team are my friends, and I have friends all over, I have friends on Black Hous and I’ve got friends here. And we’re still training, this is the brand I created here a while ago, a brand that I use and the academy here is Muay Thai College. We’re working on it to see if we can develop a great school.

How’s the training at Black House? Are you staying in Rio or Curitiba?

I’m in Curitiba, I’m going to Rio on Thursday (2nd) to finish the training and from there I’ll fly for my fight, because there’s little time left for the fight, we’re right on schedule.

What did you think of the fight between Lyoto Machida and Nakamura?

I though it was excellent, I congratulate Lyoto, he’s a guy that has been showing that he has every quality required to be a great champion in his category in the Ultimate. And we help each other in what we can, me, Lyoto, Vitor (Belfort), you know, everyone at Black House. And everybody’s also been training together, here in Curitiba to make this work, to make it go ahead so we can get there and conquer our space.

And what did you think about Shogun’s defeat?

Things like that happen, I think that no one is absolute forever, the same way he lost, other great champions have lost, I have lost and definitely if I keep fighting I will eventually lose, and the thing is you have to keep on training. Every time you get on the ring or octagon you risk losing. So the thing is to keep on rolling, he has to conquer his space, he’s a complete athlete. Now he has to work hard and keep his mind on the right track to handle with this situation. Now he has to dot his i’s, see where he made the mistakes, see what he has to correct and move on.

And how’s the training with Rodrigo Minotauro?

I’m going to Rio and we’ll begin to train together, Rodrigo is a heavy-duty tough guy and we’re working to keep things on the right track. The goal is for him to take that belt too, we’re working on that and he’s focused on his objectives and we’re together, come what may, and as a friend of mine says: “we’re together and mixed up.”

Wanderlei Silva re-debuts in the UFC at the end of the year. He has moved to the U.S. and had been training there. What do you think about his re-debut?

It all depends on the people behind the athlete, if he has a good training camp, a good conditioning coach, a good tactical team that can help him to correct a few mistakes he’s made in his last defeats.... it’s like I said, we’re in constant evolution. I don’t have much to say about Wanderlei, he was the absolute champion of his category for a long time and we have to take our hats off for him because he’s made history and still does. I want him to have a good re-debut in the Ultimate, because it’s an event that needs someone with a name like his. I wish him luck and may him achieve what he wants.

Paulão holds the WEC middleweight belt, and if you two keep you’re belts, a future confrontation will be inevitable. He has already said he wouldn’t like to fight you, but if he had to, he would and then he would go out for pizza with you. How do you see this possibility?

Paulão and I are very close friends, we have a good relationship, I owe a lot to Paulão because he helped me when I was going through a very difficult phase, when I went alone to fight in Korea. So I owe him a lot, to Zé Mario (Sperry), to Rodrigo (Minotauro), to Rogério (Minotoro). But it’s like he said, if it has to happen, if they pay me enough as well as him, we’ll fight and then go out for pizza. But I wouldn’t like that to happen, because I have a lot of love and friendship for him, I always hope that he does well, I admire his ground skills, and that’s that, and if that fight didn’t happen I ‘d be very happy.