While some visual evidence does exist, what exactly happened in the
locker room at Pride “Shockwave” on December 31, 2005?
The entire martial arts world has already seen the YouTube video
where Charles
Bennett and Cristiano
Marcello, jiu-jitsu trainer of Chute Boxe team, had a fight in
the Pride locker room a few hours before the grudge match between
Wanderlei
Silva and Ricardo
Arona.
Everything happened shortly after “Krazy Horse” submitted Japanese
fighter Ken Kaneko,
who also made his camp in Chute Boxe. Marcello, who was in Kaneko’s
corner, had a discussion with Bennett, who was sharing a locker
room with the Chute Boxe team that night, right after that fight
ended. What resulted was a confrontation where Marcello applied a
triangle choke that rendered Bennett unconscious, as seen in the
video.
However, perhaps the most controversial part of that history occurs
when Bennett regains consciousness — and that’s not shown in any
video. When Krazy Horse awakens and sees Silva standing up in front
of him, pushing him with his feet to make him leave his warm-up
area, the American applies an elbow right to Silva´s chin, who
immediately falls unconscious. That big secret, hidden by all Chute
Boxe members for 15 years, was finally revealed in Silva’s book
“Sem Coleira,” which
launched in Brazil last week.
One day after the launch ceremony, PVT conducted a live interview
with Rafael
Cordeiro, Master Rudimar Fedrigo, Silva and Mauricio
Rua, where many histories of the Chute Boxe team were revealed
— including that incident. They confirmed the encounter between
Silva and Bennett that was not captured on video.
“Rafael always helped me a lot in the psychological aspect [of the
sport] since he became a trainer,” Fedrigo said. “I have to admit I
was totally lost when I saw our champion unconscious a few minutes
from the most important fight of his career. Rafael took control of
the entire situation. [He said]: ‘Wanderlei what happened is that
you just got punched by surprise and now he woke up the lion inside
of you. Nobody can beat you when you bring that spirit. Go there,
beat that guy and bring your belt back to Curitiba.’ And that´s
what Wanderlei did.”
Silva offered his perspective on the episode.
“When I woke up, I asked Rafael what happened and he told me the
guy had hit me by surprise, and I ran after ‘Krazy Horse,’ but he
had already gone,” Silva said. “When he fought Cristiano we had
about ten guys from Chute Boxe [nearby] and we allowed him to fight
one-on-one. Nobody touched him.
“When he woke up, he attacked me by surprise. That clown attitude
could have cost me my belt. Thanks to master Rafael and Rudimar I
had a great training camp that allowed me to recover and retain my
title.”
Silva defeated Arona by split decision that night, avenging a loss
to his rival that occurred four months earlier. Considering that
most athletic commissions hand down precautionary suspensions
following a knockout defeat in sanctioned competition, it becomes
even more amazing to consider that “The Axe Murderer” fought Arona
for 20 hard minutes after being unconscious in the locker room just
minutes earlier.