Muay Thai coach Daniel Woirin with Anderson Silva at UFC 101

Brazilian MMA site Tatame.com, today reported that UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva and his Muay Thai coach, Daniel Woirin have parted ways. Woirin told Tatame in the original report,

“I thank Anderson for all the time we spent working together. He’s a champion, a born striker, but we won’t continue working together in this partnership due to lack of tune in some moments. I decided to let the way open or him to work his Muay Thai with anyone he decides”.

Because the English meaning is sometimes a little lost in translation, and also to find out what Woirin meant by a “…lack of tune in some moments,” ProMMAnow.com spoke with the Muay Thai trainer today to try and get some clarification on his split with the champ.

ProMMAnow.com: To clarify, how long did you work with Anderson Silva?
Daniel Woirin: I worked for about two years with Anderson Silva. I began my work with him when I stopped working with Lyoto Machida.

ProMMAnow.com: Obviously, it has been reported you are no longer working with him. Could you tell us why you have decided to stop working with Anderson?
Daniel Woirin: I enjoyed training Anderson for these fights, the results were positive – obviously my favorite were the first one (against James Irvin) and the last one (against Forrest Griffin) but it’s better stop now working together because we aren’t in syntony anymore.

ProMMAnow.com: Can you give us an example of what you mean by this?
Daniel Woirin: – Woirin gave no comment on this question –

ProMMAnow.com: Some people might not realize, as good as Anderson Silva is, why he still needs a Muay Thai trainer. Can you explain why someone at Anderson’s level would still need a Muay Thai coach?
Daniel Woirin: Manny Pacquiao is the best boxer in the world and he still trains boxing with boxing trainer. That’s the same thing for Ronaldinho, he still trains with soccer trainer. With Anderson it’s not different. He needs to train and to have the appropriate tactic for each fight.

ProMMAnow.com: Are there any hard feelings between you and Anderson, or was this a mutual parting of the ways?
Daniel Woirin: Nothing’s wrong between us, this was a mutual parting of the ways.

In the end, frankly, we did not learn a whole lot new. Basically, it seems for whatever reason, Woirin and Silva were no longer meshing well, they were no longer on the same wave length, they weren’t jiving, they weren’t “feeling” each other, or ever how you want to say it.

Keeping it professional, Woirin would not cite any specific examples of what he was talking about. ProMMAnow.com did call Silva’s manager, Ed Soares, to get their side of the situation, but our call was not returned.

Who initiated the parting of the ways between Silva and Woirin is not exactly clear. Even though Woirin says it was mutual, someone had to think of it first.

Silva has a fight coming up against a very dangerous opponent. He will defend his middleweight title against Vitor Belfort on April 10, at “UFC 112: Invincible” in Abu Dhabi. It is possible Silva’s camp decided they needed to go a different direction, put together a different type of game plan for this fight, and maybe they initiated the change. Then again, why change something that is not broke?

If you need a good Muay Thai coach, or just to learn more about this trainer of champions, check out Daniel Woirin’s website at www.danielwoirin.com.

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