[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmidOdybSQo&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 plans on ending his 2021 campaign with one more
knockout. After impressively recording two knockouts in UFC since his debut
in June, Brazilian “Blindado” is scheduled to face another tough
out in the middleweight division. At UFC
269 on Dec. 11, Silva (21-6) will take on Jackson-Wink fighter
Jordan
Wright (12-1). Silva spoke to Sherdog on Thursday shortly after
news of the bout surfaced.
“This fight was closed 24 hours after my win over Andrew
Sanchez and I’m really excited about that,” Silva admitted.
“When I heard he never fought more than six minutes, and saw just
one video of him, I immediately said yes.”
Fresh off his Oct. 16 demolition of Andrew
Sanchez, the Evolucao Thai fighter has already started his next
camp in Curitiba, coordinated by head coach Andre Dida from
Florida.
“We have different styles,” Silva noted. “He fights more like Lyoto
[Machida], of course he has not even 1/3 of Lyoto’s abilities, but
he is a karate guy, taller than [me], but my trainers already
studied his fights and found some roles in his game. What I can say
is that the fans can wait for an even more aggressive ‘Blindado’
looking for the knockout since the first second.”
With 18 knockouts in his 21 wins, the former M-1 Global champ started to be recognized in the MMA
world by earning that belt. In 2018, Silva knocked then-undefeated
Russian prospect Artem
Frolov out in the fourth round to capture the title and put
himself on the UFC’s radar. Although a
failed drug test kept him out of action for two years before
making his UFC debut, he eventually competed inside the Octagon in
2021. With 15 seconds left in the first round, Silva demolished
fellow countryman Wellington
Turman, and less than four months later, he dispatched Sanchez
to improve his win streak to six in a row.
Wright made his UFC debut in 2020, as an undefeated fighter who
first appeared on the second season of Dana White’s Contender Series. A quick loss to
Anthony
Hernandez was later overturned to a no contest due to a failed
drug test for Hernandez, and Wright appeared at Legacy Fighting Alliance in 2020 to go to the
second round for the first time in his career. That drubbing of
Gabriel
Checco earned him the UFC contract, and he made good on his
first appearance by forcing the doctors to intervene against
Isaac
Villanueva in 91 seconds. Three months later, he returned to
the UFC cage only to get knocked out by Joaquin
Buckley in the second round for his first career defeat. “The
Beverly Hills Ninja” bounced back in May, putting Jamie
Pickett away in 64 seconds to keep his finish rate at 100%.
