“Anderson was received in the academy by cousin Marcio Mamá. The Spider said he enjoyed a lot my fights in Pride, main MMA promotion of that epoch, and spoke openly about his desillusion, the wish of giving up fighting professionally and about his financial setbacks. He even speculated the possibility of asking me money borrowed to run a car-wash in the suburg of Curitiba.” - Rodrigo Minotauro Nogueira via Jornal Extra

Imagine what would have happened if Anderson Silva had actually gone through with it. Imagine where the UFC would be today if "The Spider" had never stepped foot inside the Octagon.

Recently while writing a column called Jogo Extra for the Brazilian paper Jornal Extra,  Nogueira reveled that Anderson Silva nearly left MMA to being a car wash business. Nogueira said that the entire incident happened sometime in 2003, after Silva had fought over in Japan and Brazil but before he become a tremendous sensation inside the UFC.

Silva was tight on money and was unhappy with what he was making while competing in mixed martial arts. He left Chute Box and was looking for a new place to train. Upon visiting Nogueira's gym, Silva expressed his frustrations with the sport and also admitted to potentially asking Nogueira to borrow money to open up the business. The Pride legend reacted quickly.

“When I knew about Anderson’s visit and his plan of leaving the sport, I reacted immediately. I called my cousin and told him that we wouldn’t permit that Anderson changed his dream for a car-wash. I invited him to train with me in Rio de Janeiro and the rest of the history we already know, the guy turned out a legend.”

You can check out the original report over at FightersOnlyMagazine.