Daily Dad News

Mixed Martial Artist Passing Down Skills To His Young Son Via Videogames

February 22, 2012

Brazilian mixed martial arts fighter Wanderlei Silva was once considered one of the most fearsome men on the planet. Although he earned a black belt in the grappling ground art of Brazilian jujitsu, he has earned much of his fame using famous Thai boxing techniques. Outside the ring, however, Silva is a videogame junkie and a proud father passing on his knowledge of the fight game to his son.

“I have played all kinds of games from Atari to Mega Drive to Nintendo. I tried to have everything, but I was a poor kid. At first, I didn’t have video games and I played the pinball machines in stores. After I started making money, I bought the videogames and I love to play them. It’s fun. Now I play with my son, who is eight years old. We have the Xbox, the Wii, and the PS3,” said Silva in an interview with tech site Digital Times.

Mentioning the more active aspects of motion capture systems such as the Nintendo Wii and Xbox Kinect, Silva appreciates that he and his son can get active when enjoying their videogame contests. “Just like I want to do for my son, I want to push my son to train and sometimes he doesn’t want to go. I say, “Man, let’s go, let’s go.” And we play the game. shared Silva. “It’s good for us to play together. I show him in the game the training and the movements that the characters do, it’s the same thing when I train him.”

Silva also applauded the fact that video games are inspiring children to pick up the fast growing sport of MMA. “That’s great because we need to try to get kids moving. When they’re playing games, they try to practice and do something for their body because it’s fun and in the moment, but it’s bad for the body to sit there,” said Silva.

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