(Video courtesy YouTube/MMAHeat)

When Anderson Silva mentioned in his post-UFC 126 fight interview that Steven Seagal taught him the front kick that he knocked Vitor Belfort out with Saturday night most of the MMA community were willing to give the Hard to Kill, Out for Justice Lawman the benefit of the doubt, but when the Marked for Death, Above the Law Glimmer Man told reporters that he invented the textbook front kick, we weren’t the only ones who called bullshit.

Here’s what Seagal had to say to MMA Heat’s Karyn Bryant about Silva’s win:

"I couldn’t have been happier, because right before he walked out I said to him, ‘Stay away from him for the first, you know, two, three minutes, just kind of get him frustrated and fake low and come high and do that kick I’ve been teaching you and kick him in the head or the face. He did exactly what I said and exactly what I wanted to happen and I was very, very proud of him…I was raised in Japan under some of the greatest karate masters and jiu-jitsu masters to live in our time and I learned that kick 40 years ago or 30 years….35…I don’t know — a long, long time ago and I worked for the last 35 years or so to perfect it."


We’ve all seen the training video of Seagal teaching Anderson useless moves like how to throat strike and slap standing submissions on an opponent, so to hear that he actually taught the UFC middleweight champ something useful is a bit surprising. In that clip, though Seagal can be heard telling Silva to kick lower, (like in the shins) of his imaginary opponent when practicing a variation of the kick on the padded wall of the Black House gym. I guess to say that he showed him the kick isn’t out of the realm of possibility, but for him to say that he "came up with the move" is laughable, considering it has been used for years in several martial arts, most notably, muay thai.

Just ask Bas Rutten.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/MMAFighting)

Here’s what Seagal told MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani about the top secret kick:

"It’s not exactly karate; it’s just something that I created that’s a little bit different that I thought Anderson could learn well because he’s sort of a natural born athlete and he has very quick hands and feet and his kicks are good to begin with. So, I started teaching him kicks that I really thought he could hurt people with. In practice he was knocking people out with body shots. At that point I knew he was really going to start making these kicks work. Nobody knows the kick. I’m teaching it to Machida and Machida kung and Anderson and a few of the Brazilians, but we haven’t really used it yet. I haven’t really shown it to many people…[Anderson] sent me a memo asking me to teach him my deadly moves."

I guess Seagal must have taught the deadly move to Tony Jaa as well, since he used it a few years ago while fliming Ong Bak.

(Video courtesy YouTube/doraemon6191)