[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEM5jAw33AU&w=560&h=315]
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your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the
ESPN app. Rising Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight
Bruno
Silva believes that Brazilians will soon take over the
185-pound division. After three impressive wins in the UFC in seven months, with two
consecutive bonus prizes, former M-1 champion “Blindado” Silva is
finally thinking about taking a little time off. The Brazilian
recently returned to his hometown of Cajazeiras, Brazil, which took
several days to arrive there from Las Vegas. Silva spoke to Sherdog
about his most recent performance, a knockout win over Jordan
Wright, his style and his thoughts on the rest of his
division.
“Less than 12 hours after my win over Andrew
Sanchez, my manager got a call from the UFC to face Jordan
Wright,” Silva explained about his hectic schedule. “On Monday,
I was already training with Daniel
Acacio in Curitiba. I’m in camp since February. Now I want to
rest my body, learn new stuff. Next week, I’m back to training, but
I want to stop impact training for at least 20 days.”
With an extra $100,000 in bonus money in his pocket for his last
two knockouts over Wright and Sanchez, Silva believes his current
run could not have gone any better in his wildest dreams.
“If I could draw with a pencil my beginning in UFC, it wouldn’t be
so perfect,” Silva gushed. “Three knockout streak, UFC giving me
good value, and that’s amazing.”
When breaking down his victory against Wright, “Blindado” revealed
that his gameplan was to let his opponent strike first and see if
he could beat Wright at his own game.
“‘Dida’ told me to make a mental war against him,” Silva admitted.
“I always like to beat my opponents in their strong point, and
that’s what I did with surprising him on the clinch. We trained a
lot to bend when he clinched me, and [I] sent a cross punch over
his hand, and that’s how I caught him.”
Known for his unique sense of humor, Silva also explained his
traditional dance with announcer Bruce Buffer right after the
fight.
“In my first UFC fight, I was celebrating my win [by] dancing, when
I saw Bruce was laughing and dancing too,” Silva said with a smile.
“Since then, every time I win, I invite him [to dance]. Celebrating
dance with Buffer started to be like a tradition to my team. Bruce
is such a nice, humble guy and always understands [it] as [a]
joke.”
During the conversation Bruno revealed a curious meeting with
another Brazilian middleweight talent in the backstage of UFC
269. When he met a few of his countrymen in Alex
Pereira and Andre Muniz,
he immediately knew there would be an oncoming three-Brazilian
storm in the middleweight division.
“I’m a very warm person, typical of Latin blood, and I avoid making
contact with possible opponents from my division, mostly
Brazilians, but Andre ‘Sergipano’ broke me up. At the weigh ins, he
come to talk to me, and he was such a nice, humble guy that I
couldn’t play the cold guy with him. I was happy with his
impressive win. I’m sure ‘Poatan’ [Pereira], me and Muniz will rule
the middleweight division,” Silva concluded with the utmost of
confidence.
