“The Axe Murderer” Wanderlei Silva is arguably Japan’s biggest star when it comes to fighters who made their name in the country. The legendary Brazilian now is hoping to fight in front of a Japanese crowd once again before everything is all said and done.

Silva was present at RIZIN 12 today to corner one half of the main event, Luiz Gustavo. But midway through the card, Silva found some time to head to the ring and address the crowd.

When he did so he voiced how he was hoping to fight for Rizin in December on their big New Year’s Eve show that they put on every year.

Silva is currently tied up with Bellator but the two promotions have let fighters go back and forth in the past before as seen with “King Mo” Muhammad Lawal and Mirko Cro Cop among others.

Bellator 206 on September 29th will mark Silva’s next return to action as he and a fellow star from the Pride FC days, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson will square off for the fourth time. The fight will be Silva’s second in the past five years. His most recent being a unanimous decision loss to his rival, Chael Sonnen in the main event of Bellator 180 in June 2017.

Most of Silva’s legacy came from the iconic days of Pride where he destroyed just about everyone who stood in his way. So a return to Rizin would definitely get the nostalgia flowing for everyone who has followed his career closely.

In Pride, Silva amassed an incredible record of 21-4 with his only losses coming to Dan Henderson, Ricardo Arona and the heavyweights, Cro Cop and Mark Hunt. 16 of those 21 victories came via stoppage. All of which were knockout or TKO.

Most impressively about Silva’s run was that he went undefeated from 2000 to 2004 racking up a record of 16-0-1.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 8/12/2018