Apparently Anderson Silva's competitive side reaches well beyond the cage.
While the UFC middleweight champion has top contender Chael Sonnen on his plate at UFC 117 in August, Silva and his Black House MMA teammates are currently waging battle in a different venue – paintball – and taking it pretty seriously.
In fact, as Black House head Ed Soares today told MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com), what started out as fun and games is quickly developing into a full-fledged camp rivalry.
"We went out this past weekend and had a huge paintball game," Soares said. "We had about 12 people on our team, and Fabricio Werdum had like 30 on his team, and we still beat them."
The all-star roster of burgeoning paintballers included Soares, Silva, and his Black House teammates Jordan Smith, Saul Almeida and Damaso Pereira. Werdum's squad included himself, Rafael Cordeiro, Gilberto Faria and, according to Soares, a few actual Marines.
After an entertaining day in the desert firing paint-filled assault weapons, Soares said he and the crew thought Black House had proved its battlefield superiority.
But after Werdum made comments to the Brazilian-based Portal do Vale Tudo website suggesting that Silva's squad had gained the upper-hand through less-than-scrupulos tactics, Soares said the UFC middleweight champion took offense.
"We smoked them," Soares said. "And Werdum said we were cheating. That's ridiculous. We beat them four games to none."
Of course, Werdum has some experience facing Black House fighters inside a mixed martial arts arena, too. It was the team's Junior Dos Santos who defeated Werdum in his final UFC match, while "Vai Cavalo" was also on the short end of a PRIDE contest with Antonio Rodrgio Nogueira in 2006.
Soares said he hopes to continue that dominance on the desert plains of California in another day of open battle, paintball-style.
"We can't wait to do it again with those guys and get rid of all of their excuses," Soares said. "Black House is declaring war on Fabricio Werdum."
While it might be a little shocking to some that Silva would be out playing paintball just a few short weeks before he puts his middleweight title on the line against Sonnen, Soares said the day wasn't anything close to an afternoon off.
"We were out in Corona, Calif., and it was like 102 degrees," Soares said. "We were all wearing long-sleeved shirts with paintball gear, masks and everything. It was like a cardio workout. When I left there, I was able to wring my shirt that I was wearing because it was so sweaty."
Soares also said for anyone wondering if Silva's focus is in the wrong place considering his recreational pastimes, reality is quite the opposite. By staying busy outside of the gym, Silva is able to give 100 percent when he's in it.
"He loves playing paintball, he loves playing video games, and he loves playing soccer," Soares said. "He likes riding Waverunners. He likes to stay active. He doesn't do anything unsafe, but it's a great opportunity to take his mind off of fighting for a little bit."
So for the Black House camp, a chance to show Werdum up on the paintball field is a high priority. First the middleweight title, next a real battle for bragging rights.
"Werdum should really change his team name to 'Wer-done,'" Soares said. "For him to say we barely won or we needed to cheat, maybe that punch from Fedor affected him a lot more than we all thought."
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