MMA legend Anderson Silva recently shared the intriguing story behind his famous nickname – “The Spider”…
And it’s a childhood story!

It was during the conversation on “Ticaracaticast” podcast that Silva, former UFC middleweight champion, shared his childhood admiration for the “Spider-Man” character:

The nickname Spider came about because the two lives (Anderson Silva and Peter Parker) kind of fit together in some ways.
I was raised by my uncles, and so was Peter Parker.

I’ve always been a fan of Spider-Man. When I was a child, I watched a Spider-Man series and I kept pestering my aunt to give me a Spider-Man costume.
When she gave it to me, I never took it back. I wore it under my uniform, went to school and I thought I was Spider-Man.

Even the principal became involved as a result:

So the principal called my aunt to go to school and told me to take me to a psychologist because of this.
“He really thinks he’s a superhero, he can do sh*t.”

I climbed on the roofs of houses when I was a child.
They took me to a psychologist and nothing happened, it was just too much energy.

And, well, “The Spider” nickname itself was spontaneously coined during his time in PRIDE:

At PRIDE I was wearing a Spider-Man t-shirt, and the PRIDE announcer saw me and said I looked a lot like him.
I thought she was making fun of me.

At night, when she announced me for the fight, she called me Anderson “The Spider” Silva, and it stayed.

 

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