The first fight between Adrian Mattheis and Alex Silva at ONE: ‘Lights Out’ ended in controversy. The Indonesian knocked the Brazilian down and the referee stepped in straightaway.
Silva was clearly not in a position to intelligently defend himself but he recovered almost instantly and was upset that the fight had not been allowed to continue for a couple more seconds. They rematch at ONE 158 tomorrow and Mattheis can understand why the Brazilian was upset about the stoppage,
“For me personally, I would of course protest it if I were in his position. He thought that he was not out, so why was the match stopped? But the referee saw it my way.”
Adrian Mattheis 🇮🇩 sends Alex Silva to the shadow realm with a HUGE right hand! 🧨 #ONELightsOut pic.twitter.com/WVTd7uY8gy
— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) March 11, 2022
Right decision
However the Indonesian says that Silva was clearly out and the referee made the right decision to stop the fight,
“Silva was already out. I knocked him out with the first blow, and I gave him more hammer fists on the ground. When I hit him, I saw the whites of his eyes, and I went to capitalize on that. I got him with two hammer fists on the ground. When I went in for the third, the ref pulled me off when Silva went for my leg.”
The win over the former ONE Championship strawweight champion was the biggest of his career. But Mattheis feels that a lot of people remain unconvinced because of the controversial nature of the stoppage.
The “Papua Badboy” Adrian Mattheis kicks off ONE: HEROES OF HONOR with a hard-earned unanimous decision win over Lan Ming Qiang! #HeroesOfHonor #Manila #MartialArts pic.twitter.com/kkgDeoiRjU
— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) April 20, 2018
Real deal
He sees the rematch as a chance to prove that he is ‘the real deal’,
“I know that a lot of people want to see if I am the real deal. I want to prove that I’m that good and put to rest the arguments. So I’ll go and do my best. The rest is up to God.”
Mattheis is a decade younger than Silva and says he was a fan of the Brazilian, who first fought in Jakarta in 2012, before he became a rival. It is important to the 29 year old to win emphatically as it clearly bothers him that his opponent did not accept the outcome of the last contest,
“I’m fighting my idol once again (and) I want to prove I can beat him. Because he didn’t accept his loss I’ll prove myself with this one, so the world can see.”
