Brazilian bantamweight contender Mayra Bueno Silva is learning and improving her English, and she didn’t mince her words ahead of her UFC Vegas 77 main event bout with Holly Holm.
Silva and Holm will face off in the headline bout at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday night with the women’s bantamweight division currently without a champion following Amanda Nunes’ recent retirement.
The fighters currently occupying the top two spots in the women’s 135-pound rankings, Julianna Pena and Raquel Pennington, look to be in pole position to fight for the vacant belt. But Silva plans to change that with a big performance against former champion Holm on Saturday night.
Speaking about a potential Pena vs. Pennington title fight, Silva didn’t sugar-coat her opinion, as she asked the assembled reporters, “You want to watch this fight? No, no, no. Nobody wants to watch this fight. Nobody!”
Currently listed at 10th in the bantamweight rankings, Silva said that victory alone probably won’t be good enough for her to gatecrash the title picture. But a knockout of “The Preacher’s Daughter” could change everything.
“I believe I need a knockout,” she stated.
“She needs to knock me out, too. When I win this fight, when I do this good fight, I think I’m the next (challenger), because nobody wants to watch Julianna Pena and Raquel Pennington, sorry!”
Silva has switched her training camp to American Top Team, and she heaped praise on her new setup, saying that she now has “the best coaches in the world” helping her prepare.
And she hopes that working with the famed Coconut Creek gym will help her reach similar heights to a former ATT alum, recently-retired double-champ Amanda Nunes.
“It’s sad on one side, because of the fact that we don’t get to see her anymore, and happy on the other hand, because actually this door is open,” Silva explained.
“You can’t substitute Amanda – she is irreplaceable – and because with that open door, I want to do what she did. I want to go for the two belts.
“But, again, she’s irreplaceable. I’m not trying to replace her. I’m just trying to do my story.”
That story continues on Saturday with her bout against Holm and, if Silva had any say in her path, it would involve a “dream fight” with another former champion, Miesha Tate, further down the line.
But, for now, her focus is fixed on Holm as she looks to gatecrash the title picture with an emphatic victory.
“I want to hurt her,” she stated.
“I want to hurt her for four rounds, and then in the fifth round, I’ll knock out Holly.”