UFC 132 Results: 5 Reasons Why Wanderlei Silva Is Not Done with MMA Yet

"The Axe Murderer" Wanderlei Silva is arguably one of the most polarizing legends in Mixed Martial Arts victory.

Even the most casual of fans appreciate Wanderlei Silva because, whereas some guys resort to playing it safe and holding position, Silva's style is a balls-to-the-wall, do-or-die, completely unrelenting offensive style that incorporates the fury of a legendary killing spree with the violence of a horror-film collection and mixes in the finished combination with what is arguably the greatest display of Muay Thai to have ever been displayed in mainstream MMA.

Last Saturday night was by far his quickest loss in the UFC and his career, as what was to be a candidate for MMA's Fight of The Decade turned out to be a clear candidate and likely runner-up to Lyoto Machida's Crane Kick and Anderson Silva's Front Kick of Doom.

However, let me be the last to jump on the bandwagon and chalk it up to age or a step that Silva clearly has not lost yet.

If it were a simple feat to beat Michael Bisping, or if "just anyone" could create the argument that they beat Rich Franklin, wouldn't you think that guys like Jason Day and Nate Quarry would be much bigger names in the sport by now?

I would think not.

Wanderlei Silva just jumped the gun early and got too excited to give us the Fight of The Decade, which led to Chris Leben taking his opening to execute four beautiful uppercuts in succession, but that doesn't quite mean he's through with the sport.

That's why I've compiled five reason why Wanderlei Silva may be close to the end of his days in active competition, but he is not done with MMA yet.

Style

This should speak for itself.

His style defines what the sport is about: fighting at a relentless pace with channeled aggression and a "live by the sword, die by the sword" mentality.

Even in his mid-30s, we've seen Wand go for broke and go in ferociously for the kill on multiple occasions.

It's paid dividends to his entire career so far, and it's shown no signs of coming to a head at any time soon.

Even if we only see Wanderlei fight just one more time in the cage, or even if Saturday night was the last time we're ever going to see him in a sanctioned fight, his aggressive offense—arguably one of the best, if not the best, display of Muay Thai in MMA—will always be the one thing that people remember when they think about Wanderlei.

They'll remember it very easily, because in the minds of many MMA fans, Wanderlei's aggression is at the level with which many feel all MMA fighters should strive to fight for 15 minutes or more.

His Name Will Draw Crowds, No Matter Who He's Fighitng

Wanderlei Silva didn't become known as one of the greatest Light Heavyweights in Mixed Martial Arts just by being born.

He had to earn his respect after suffering notable losses in the UFC to Tito Ortiz and Vitor Belfort, and he had to reinvent himself in order to become a big dog in the sport, which he did in PRIDE.

Years after PRIDE folded, Silva is one of the most polarizing names in the sport based solely on his reputation of being the embodiment of ferocity on a regular basis—his style, as well as his intensity and his emphasis on respect in and out of the cage, have attributed themselves to the image people have gotten of Silva.

They know he's an intense dude who is fearless and has explosives in his eyes as well as his hands and his knees, and yet they also know that he's a soft spoken, very classy guy who prefers to let his actions speak for themselves during the fight.

As long as his name is in existence somehow in the sport, people are going to want to watch him, regardless of what capacity he is in or who he may be fighting—if he so chooses to fight again.

He doesn't have the drawing power that a Brock Lesnar or a Georges St-Pierre may have (or have had, depending on your take on GSP-Shields at UFC 129 a few months ago), but when you can do what Wanderlei Silva has been able to do for a long time in his career, why does it matter if he could talk up the fight or not?

I say if a picture is worth a thousand words, then any picture of a Wanderlei Silva fight should speak a millennium's worth of anthologies as to why he is so exciting to watch.

Believe It or Not, He Shows Intelligence in the Cage

You don't have to be a strictly-UFC fan to know that for all his aggressiveness, Wanderlei is a smart fighter and gets underrated as a smart fighter simply due to his aggressive style.

Yes, his style is a balls-to-the-wall, rapid-fire, unrelenting offense that has become arguably the ultimate in Muay Thai displays in MMA, but he doesn't try to create a Don Frye-Yoshihiro Takayama affair from right out of the gate.

Wanderlei is a technical striker who likes to land as accurately as he possibly can in order to throw his opponents off before he swarms in.

In other words, Wanderlei doesn't just go for it from the opening bell, because that approach would be expected; he sets up his moments to swarm and then he goes in for the proverbial killshot.

That fast-paced brawling and blood-incinerating Muay Thai doesn't just happen from the get-go; Wanderei picks his moments to strike.

He just got caught up in putting on a show and went into kamikaze mode a bit early against Leben.

His Influence on the Next Generation

Multiple gyms have risen to give birth to some of the sport's top prospects.

Team Black House-affiliated Nova Uniao Jiu-Jitsu Academy has Renan Barao, Oakdale MMA has Michael McDonald, Roufusport has the likes of Erik Koch and Danny Downes and Team Golden Glory has Siyar Bahadurzada as well as Jon Olav Einemo.

Add Wand Fight Team, Wanderlei Silva's gym and 2010 Gym of The Year according to Fighters Only, to the list of gyms that are shaping the future of Mixed Martial Arts.

Jorge Lopez, Vitor Vianna, Michael Costa and 2-0 Featherweight fighter Peter Simone join current UFC Middleweight Demian Maia as members of the Wand Fight Team family; they all have been under the tutelage of The Axe Murderer, whose gym is located in Las Vegas.

After Wanderlei really does retire from active competition, his influence and his legacy will live on in the memories of his career, but vicariously, it will also have to live on in his gym and through his fighters.

Once the day comes when Silva really does has to stick to training fighters and not delve too much in active competition, a group of fighters will have to carry on his name and keep it alive in the sport of MMA.

With who Wand has employed at his gym in Vegas and with who has called Wand Fight Team their camp, it's going to be an awfully long time before we forget the brilliance of The Axe Murderer.

His Legacy in Mixed Martial Arts

Putting every aspect of Wanderlei Silva together—his aggressive style, his ability to pick his moments to be aggressive, his ability to draw and the fact that he's taken the role of trainer as well as being a fighter—it's hard to deny that Wanderlei has a legacy, and it's as memorable of a legacy as any in the sport.

As long as he's able to move and throw a proper hook or land a knee that makes a fan jump out of their seat, there's not going to be a rush to get Wanderlei to call it a career because it's clear that he still has so much to offer to the sport of Mixed Martial Arts.

There's no shame in a KO loss to Chris Leben, Dan Henderson, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Mirko Filipovic or Vitor Belfort, and in the minds of some, there might be some dispute to the claim that Rich Franklin dominated all three rounds at UFC 99, so it still stands as absurd to believe that a KO loss to Chris Leben is the grounds for retirement.

Are we calling for his retirement because we truly feel his legacy will be akin to Ken Shamrock's if he keeps going, or are we calling for it because it's in the norm to question someone's longevity in the sport after they lose a fight that was expect by two-thirds of the MMA World to end by knockout?

If it's normal to think Wanderlei should call it a career just because he lost a fight to a guy who we all knew had it in him to deliver a knockout to one of the greatest knockout artists in the history of combat sports, then I'm glad I'm an outcast.

Regardless of how long Wanderlei stays active in competition, the Leben loss speaks more to Wanderlei jumping the gun on his desire to turn it up to 11 for the crowd than it does to whatever may be left of his longevity in MMA.

In reality, the uppercuts he took Saturday night don't erase the memory of his two very convincing wins over Rampage or his KO win over Ikuhisa Minowa, who is a very skilled and very exciting grappler in his own sense.

His infamous 45-second loss to Vitor Belfort might not be easy to forget, but it's not enough to disguise his wins over a prime Kazushi Sakuraba or Yuki Kondo or Kazuyuki Fujita.

It takes a highlight reel career to make one a legend, and there's no argument that Silva's career fits that bill.

One look at his career, and it's pretty easy to see that Wanderlei Silva is a man whose legacy will be remember for years and years to come.

Then again, it's Mixed Martial Arts...nobody is ever truly "done" with Mixed Martial Arts.