Wanderlei Silva, and the man who attacked him after the boxing exhibition Saturday night, have finally spoken out on the incident that has gone viral over the last 24 hours. Silva, who was disqualified
for multiple fouls against former boxing champion Acelino Freitas in Sao Paulo, was knocked out cold inside the ring by Freitas’ son, Rafael.
“I broke my nose and had seven stitches on the eye,” Silva said on social media posts. “That didn’t happen during the match. … I have a lot of headaches, I’ll do more tests here in Curitiba to identify if there’s any more serious injury to the head. I’ll also check with an ophthalmologist, because I can’t open the eye. That was the damage caused yesterday.”
In the same video, Silva’s head coach Andre Dida said that they had to respond to attacks from members of Freitas’ team after the main event of Spaten Fight Night 2.
When Silva was disqualified, Freitas’ cornermen stormed the ring and started taunting the opposite camp. An unidentified member of Freitas’ team throws a kick at Thor Silva, Wanderlei’s son, and they go at it. Former UFC champion Fabricio Werdum, Acelino Freitas and “The Axe Murderer” were trying to calm things down, but Werdum and Dida eventually joined the brawl after the altercation between Thor and Freitas’ team.
Rafael Freitas deleted his social media account in the early hours of Sunday after being identified as the man who knocked Silva out. Freitas entered the ring and punched Silva in the back of the head, and then landed a right punch to his jaw to drop him unconscious. He spoke to Globo about his actions and issued an apology to the 49-year-old MMA veteran.
“When I realized a brawl had started, initiated by Wanderlei’s team, his son, his coach Andre Dida and Werdum,” Freitas said. “When I saw all of them assaulting my father and my brothers, I got in legitimate defense. In the heat of the moment, I only thought about defending my family.”
“‘Popo’s’ team entered the ring after the result and came at us, pointing fingers and cursing, like they’ve been doing all week,” Wanderlei Silva said on a different video. “At any moment I assaulted anybody. I was there holding people and then got hit in the back of the head, and then punched in the eye. I was cowardly assaulted. As you can see, my eye is still bleeding and I have a lot of headache.”
Globo aired an interview with Silva on Sunday night in which he says he’s “a fan” of Freitas, but his team’s actions were unacceptable. The MMA veteran said he would be down to talking to Freitas about the incident, but “there will be consequences” for his son for the attack.
“The match ended and instead of his guys enter the ring to celebrate with ‘Popo’ and lift him, they came at us,” Silva said. “They were acting like that all week long, cursing at us. Even at the weigh-ins, one guy started screaming disrespectful words at me. When we met inside the ring [before the match], they were threatening and saying, ‘This is not your place, we’ll eat you, you’re a dead dog.’ I won’t feel cornered. I was very upset to see an idol behaving like that with me. Look at my eye, I can’t see. I’m dying with pain at the back the head from the punches.”
Werdum shared voice messages on his Instagram page which he claims were sent by Acelino Freitas hours after the weigh-ins on Friday. Silva was annoyed that Freitas’ team was talking trash at him, which he felt was unnecessary.
“Relax brother, everybody will get beat up,” Freitas allegedly said in a voice message to Werdum. “When one gets beat in the corner, everybody gets beat. Be sure that when he loses, you will also lose. Be cool, brother. Get some sleep and dream about the loss tomorrow.”
Silva’s lawyer Claudio Dalledone told Combate that they will file a lawsuit against Rafael Freitas, calling his actions borderline attempted murder. Also, given Freitas alleged messages sent on Friday, they might also sue the retired boxer for allegedly “incentivizing” the attack.
Freitas will undergo surgery Monday for a broken hand. His coach told MMA Fighting he suffered the injury during the match, not after. On his social media, the boxer claimed the audio messages were “manipulated” to make it look like they premeditated those actions.
Freitas shared a video where Dida can be seen attacking him with two left hands to the face during the brawl, and said his brother and cornerman Luis Claudio saved him from the worst. Freitas said he apologizes on his behalf, as well as his team and sons, “and hope it’s reciprocated.”
“There are no right and wrong in this episode,” Freitas wrote. “It really was an unfortunate post-fight [incident] that overshadowed the belt I had won with bravery and technique against a much heavier giant in front of me, a MMA legend. Let’s all recover and move on, guys. The noble art deserves that we leave aside every difference, and we can give the example that our sport is not violence.
