Silva stands five foot 11, with a slim waist and a light step. But above the waist, his body expands into a thick, muscular torso, long python-like arms and a big craggy head that looks like it was borrowed from Mount Rushmore.
All the more room to apply the tattoo on the back of his shaved skull.
Inside the ring or cage, Silva is a beast. But away from the fray, the former Pride middleweight champion is a pussycat with perfect manners. Meet the man and he will invariably take your hand, bow his head and greet you warmly whether he knows you or not.
Some days, he opens the gym to the public. When that happens, they crowd around the cage as he spars or coaches fighters. And when Silva walks over to a nearby water fountain, he is stopped every step of the way by someone who wants a picture, an autograph or just wants to get close to an MMA icon.
Quenching his thirst takes time those days for the man who was unbeaten in 18 Pride fights between 2000 and 2004.
When Silva moved from Brazil to Las Vegas two years ago, there was just him and his trainer and their immediate family.
"I didn't have a gym, I didn't have anything. Now I have a big family now," he said proudly. "I have a lot of students, a lot of fans come and visit my gym, training on weekends. It's a great time.
"Now I have a good structure for me and my fighters and I want to give my contribution. I need to give back to the sport what this sport give for me. I want to give opportunity for the other fighters. For you to give your best you need a good structure, a good coach to give you a chance to fight with the best guys in the world."
To add to that family atmosphere, he has valuable space in his gym turned into a kids' play area, complete with Jungle Gym and slide.
But he also has an elevation room, a small cubbyhole where fighters can run on the treadmill or train in the equivalent of high elevation. A cardio freak, Silva is famous for training with a converted snorkel to restrict oxygen intake.
Clearly the gym is a second home.
"I don't have this gym to make money," he stressed. "If I wanted to have money, I'd buy apartments, now they're so cheap. But I'm a fighter, not a realtor.
"I love my gym, I need to give back, I need to give opportunities to other guys."
Silva remains an icon to many fighters as well as fans.
"Wanderlei Silva has been an inspiration for me since I got into the sport," said welterweight Mike (Quick) Swick.
"He was just aggressive, he went after guys. He was a very good striker. You know guys like him and Vitor Belfort, the early Vitor Belfort, are guys I tried to mimic my style after. I wanted to go out there and I wanted to win by knockout, and I wanted to knock people out fast."
Silva's style is simple and brutal.
"Wanderlei loves to stand and bang," says welterweight Ben Saunders.
But it's raw power mixed with technique.
"Wanderlei's so quick and powerful. Even a light jab is going to have a lot of sting on it," said Mike Whitehead, who trains with Silva.
Old school at heart, Silva is a true warrior who doesn't mind going out on his shield as long as the crowd is entertained - as it was in his three-round slugfest with Chuck (The Iceman) Liddell at UFC 79 in December 2007.
"Of course, I lose but it was an unbelievable fight, going into the history (books)," he said. "I test my limit and he tested his limits. Two great fighters . . . Not just you touch the guy, he touch you. No, it was a war. The public loved this."
One backstage onlooker remembers Silva after the fight, teetering down the hallway in the distance en route to the ambulance to take him to hospital to be checked out.
"Next day. My face, my whole body - pain," he said. "My hands, my legs. . . . Two weeks to recover, one month to (get back to) training.
"It was a tough fight. He's a tough guy. I respect him (Liddell) a lot."
Silva says he tries to take care of his body more in training these days.
"Eat more, sleep more - and the sex is down," he said with a laugh.
Silva's tough guy fight style is fuelled by the fans - perhaps too much so at times.
"I really really like to fight. The emotion, every time I go into the Octagon and the crowd (goes) 'aaah.' This is priceless. This is unbelievable. Sometimes you hit the guy or the guy hits you and the public goes 'wow.' I love this. I don't like the bad fights where they boo."
Silva said he lost his last fight against Quinton (Rampage) Jackson at UFC 92 in December after his corner yelled out there was a minute and a half left in the first round.
"And I'm thinking nothing has happened," he explained. "I'm a very nervous fighter, I don't touch him but he no come in and the public started to boo. I said I need to go, so I go in. I had the wrong movement and he got to me."
Jackson got to him with a sledgehammer of a punch, laying out the Brazilian nine seconds later.
"Sometimes I put my heart in front of my technique," Silva said. "Now my coach talks to me: 'Easy, easy, easy.;"
Both Silva and Franklin are coming off losses and Silva knows he can't afford many more. "Every time I fight with the rope around the neck . . . but I never give up."
This time, Silva says he will try to remember not to lead with his heart.
"I'm going to try but after the fighting starts, it's hard . . . But this time I need to fight for a win. I need this, I really need this. But it's possible I'm going to give a show too."
