Bruno Silva reveals how pre-fight interviews affected strategy against Alex Pereira

21/10/2023 00:30

Some fighters use pre-fight interviews as a way to get inside their opponent's head. For Bruno Silva, his words became his worst enemy heading into his fight against Alex Pereira in March 2022.

Silva and Pereira were both undefeated in the UFC when they fought to a decision at UFC Vegas 50, with Pereira walking away victorious. Silva was choked out by Gerald Meerschaert in his following bout five months later, and that's when he decided to stop doing interviews.

"I was away for some time because if I say I'm going to go toe-to-toe with Mike Tyson, I will, and that's very dangerous," Silva told MMA Fighting's Trocação Franca podcast. "Just so you understand how far I follow my word, I gave you an interview, and other websites too, before the 'Poatan' fight. I say the 'Poatan' fight because that's when things started to go south for me. 'Poatan' is a friend, I like him a lot, it was a great fight and that's in the past.

"I said in many interviews, 'I won't take Poatan down, I'll stand and trade with him.' That was in my mind. If I could go back, do I regret trading with him? Absolutely not. I don't regret any of that, I'd do it again. But I would have been more careful in my interviews because in the middle of the fight, 'Poatan' and I are trading and fighting, I thought about taking him down. I took him down twice, but all I could think was, 'But I said in the interviews that I would stand and trade.' See? In the middle of the storm, I was standing by my word only because I had said that.

"That's wrong, man. This is a game, it's MMA, it's a sport. This is like chess. You give away a piece to get another. You can't say everything you think. I'm not saying I was going to win, because taking 'Poatan' down isn't easy. Getting to him isn't easy, and neither is taking him down and keeping him there."

Silva said he didn't give any interviews for eight months after that, aside from the ones he's contractually obligated by the UFC to do during fight week, but he feels like a new athlete now. Silva rebounded from the Meerschaert loss to knock out Brad Tavares in less than four minutes this past April, then lost his most recent bout to Brendan Allen in June. "Blindado" returns to action Saturday to face Shara Magomedov at UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi.

"It's a new Bruno 'Blindado,'" Silva said. "2022 is in the past. We're doing a good job in 2023. Like [coach Andre] Dida said, we won't throw away all the work we've been doing this year because of the Brendan Allen loss. We've changed a lot this year. I knocked out a tough guy in Brad Tavares in a cold and clean way, so let's go for the next one and beat this guy and battle to reenter the rankings again. We'll need 10 laps, but we'll get there."

Magomedov is 11-0 in the sport and makes his octagon debut after an eight-second knockout win in Thailand.

Silva said he sustained "at least 400 kicks to the leg per week" during his camp to prepare for Magomedov's leg kicks, but won't make any predictions or promises this time around.

"I try to filter what I say now," Silva said. "Before you ask me, I'll say it one last time: I'm not worried about the fans this time. I'm not worried about boos, about knockouts or submissions, none of that. I'm worried about going there and winning.

"This fight is personal. I want to beat him and that's it. No matter how. If everyone is booing me, no problem, I just want the win on my record and my hands raised."