Winner of 4 straight within the UFC with a 100% ending charge and 4 efficiency bonuses cashed, Bruno Silva sees his UFC Tampa conflict with Manel Kape this Saturday as the ultimate step earlier than difficult for the flyweight championship.
“Bulldog”, who now lives in Florida and trains with UFC champion Alexandre Pantoja at American Prime Staff, mentioned in an interview with MMA Combating that he has already mentioned together with his buddy the opportunity of possibly preventing one another sooner or later contained in the octagon.
“Everyone has that dream,” Silva mentioned. “We by no means need to combat a buddy, I don’t need to combat Pantoja, but when it’s for the belt, we’ll combat. And he mentioned precisely that, ‘I hope you combat [for the belt] as a result of that’s the dream. We’re mates, we combat one another day by day totally free right here [in the gym], so we are able to make some cash there.’ Combating for the belt of the world’s largest group is all the pieces we’ve at all times dreamed of. We higher combat a buddy for the belt than another person we don’t even know.”
Silva stopped JP Buys, Victor Rodriguez, Tyson Nam and Cody Durden to money additional $200,000 in bonuses in his most up-to-date bouts, whereas Kape not too long ago had his four-fight successful streak snapped in a choice loss to Muhammad Mokaev.
“Mokaev is No. 9 [in the ranking] and would have gone for the belt ought to he beat Mokaev however he misplaced, so I actually consider this combat will outline who’s subsequent for the belt,” Silva mentioned. “There’s no flyweight with 4 efficiency [bonuses] in a row like me, so I’m positively one of many massive names within the division. I’ll earn the following shot with a win. I stay for this. With this win, one other knockout and one other efficiency [bonus], the belt is subsequent.”
The Brazilian flyweight mentioned he’s “tremendous excited” to face Kape, and acquired some recommendation from his teammate forward of UFC Tampa. Pantoja gained a choice over the Angolan fighter again in 2021, spoiling the octagon debut of Kape, the RIZIN bantamweight champion on the time.
“One other knockout for ‘Bulldog,’” Silva mentioned of his official prediction for Saturday. “‘Bulldog’ will land a hand, Kape will go down, and I’ll end it on the bottom and pound, similar to final time. That’s what I’m envisioning right here. He likes to be very technical and take his time within the combat. I may be very technical as nicely, however let’s go for it and placed on one other present.”
