November 23, 2024

Felipe Silva plans to impress those who already forgot his first UFC knockout

Felipe Silva impressed in his Octagon debut, and promises more fireworks when he steps back in the cage at Saturday’s UFC Rotterdam against Mairbek Taisumov.

All it took was 73 seconds for Silva to knock Shane Campbell out at the UFC on FOX 21 card on Aug. 2016, but so much has happened inside and outside the cage since that night in Canada.

Conor McGregor became the UFC lightweight champion and challenged Floyd Mayweather in boxing. Stipe Miocic defended his heavyweight belt twice. Jon Jones was stripped of his interim light heavyweight title, came back, and was flagged by USADA for the second time in just over a year. Ronda Rousey, who had disappeared after her title loss to Holly Holm, returned, lost to Amanda Nunes, disappeared again, and even got married.

The list goes on and on, so it’s easy to forget what Silva did that night in his debut.

“I believe that they might have forgotten about it,” Silva told MMA Fighting. “It was an impressive debut, a first-minute knockout, but I think that coming back now and putting on another great fight, I think I’ll be all over the media again.”

In a way, Silva explains why this long layoff helped him come back a better fighter.

“I needed this time off, too,” he said. “I finally healed my injuries and was able to put on a good work in the gym.”

The CM System competitor entered his UFC debut with a hip injury, but “I decided to sign the contract and take that fight and worry about it later.” He went under the knife three months after the victory, and has been asking for a UFC fight since earlier this year.

It took a long time for him to come back, and he didn’t think twice when his manager finally called with an offer from the UFC.

“I don’t even want to know who’s coming,” Silva told his managers when called about a fight with Taisumov in Europe. “He’s the one. I can’t pick and choose. We’ll care about that later.”

Silva knew who Taisumov was because of his knockout victory over Alan Patrick in 2015, and is glad the UFC offered him a tough challenge after being turned down by other opponents.

“Mairbek is really tough, and I don’t want to choose opponents,” he said. “I’m here to be tested. It’s going to be a great fight regardless. Onto another victory in the UFC. He’s a excellent striker but also has a good ground and pound. If it’s up to me, I will always stand and go for the knockout the whole time, but if we go to the ground, I’m sharp as well for another submission.”

Silva predicts he will score a knockout attacking the body or with a big blow to Taisumov’s head, and plans to turn his focus back to David Teymur, one of the fighters he called out earlier this year.

“Taisumov is a bigger name than David and Sage Northcutt because he has more fights and better results in the UFC,” Silva said, “but after this fight, especially with a knockout, I will call out… We’re always asked after a fight who we want next, and saying it’s up to my manager or to the UFC doesn’t help. Conor McGregor showed us that. So after this fight, I will call out someone.

“I’ll leave Sage alone and call David out. He’s a better match-up — and it’s easier to make this fight happen because Sage is protected by the UFC.”

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