The last five times Alex Silva has been the distance he has lost. So the Brazilian has no intention of leaving things in the hands of the judges when he faces Miao Li Tao at ONE: ‘Battleground’ Part II.
The event at the Singapore Indoor Stadium is being broadcast next Friday and Silva says he only has one ambition in his career,
“I just want to go out there and finish people.”
Good fighter
The 38 year old is a former champion but is coming off back to back split decision losses. Silva is adamant that he should have won both fights,
“I’m sure I won that fight with Joshua and the last fight (against Hiroshi Minowa),” he said.
Had he beaten Joshua Pacio the Brazilian would have become the two time ONE Championship strawweight champion. The margins are fine but as it stands Silva is on something of a slump.
He will be looking to turn things around by submitting Miao who he describes as,
“A good fighter, very explosive. He uses a lot of strikes but against a high-level striker he tries to use his grappling so he’s a very complete, well-rounded guy. I expect he’ll try and keep the fight standing and defend the takedown.”
Different strategy
Silva sounds confident he could win a striking match with the Chinese strawweight but hints that his coaches at Evolve MMA have come up with a different strategy,
“I love to strike, but at the end of the day, I need to follow my coach, follow my team, and follow my strategy. The gameplan is everything. We start the fight standing and, deep in my heart, I think I can defeat him in any area — striking or on the ground — but for sure I will try and take the fight to my game.”
Silva has never been stopped. His six losses have all come by way of decision and he thinks his ground game is better than anyone else’s in the division,
“It’s a fight, and you never know what’s going to happen, but I don’t think anyone in the division can handle my ground game. All my respect to all the fighters, but I think I’m one step ahead of the guys on the ground.”
Settling a score
This will be the fourth time Miao has been matched with an Evolve MMA fighter. He knocked out Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke and went the distance with Ryuto Sawada twice, winning one and losing one.
The Brazilian admits he would enjoy avenging those defeats,
“I know he beat some of my teammates, but even if he didn’t, I’d want to beat him. But of course, I’ll have this in my mind deep inside,” he said.
Silva says he has watched the footage and picked up some tips on fighting Miao from his teammates,
“I’ve watched the fights multiple times already. We talked and exchanged some ideas about what I can expect to see,” he said.
Explosive and active
The former champion is understandably eager to avoid leaving this contest in the hands of the judges. He wants to win as quickly as possible and it doesn’t sound like Silva will be taking a patient approach,
“For this fight I’ll be more explosive and active. Straight away, I’m going to go for the takedown, control, damage, and finish.”
