Bruno Silva hopes for shot at teammate Alexandre Pantoja with UFC Tampa win
Winner of four straight in the UFC with a 100 percent finishing rate and four performance bonuses cashed, Bruno Silva sees his UFC Tampa clash with Manel Kape this Saturday as the final step before challenging for the flyweight championship.
“Bulldog”, who now lives in Florida and trains with UFC champion Alexandre Pantoja at American Top Team, said in an interview with MMA Fighting that he has already discussed with his friend the possibility of maybe fighting each other one day inside the octagon.
“Everybody has that dream,” Silva said. “We never want to fight a friend, I don’t want to fight Pantoja, but if it’s for the belt, we’ll fight. And he said exactly that, ‘I hope you fight [for the belt] because that’s the dream. We’re friends, we fight each other every day for free here [in the gym], so we can make some money there.’ Fighting for the belt of the world’s biggest organization is everything we’ve always dreamed of. We better fight a friend for the belt than someone else we don’t even know.”
Silva stopped JP Buys, Victor Rodriguez, Tyson Nam and Cody Durden to cash extra $200,000 in bonuses in his most recent bouts, while Kape recently had his four-fight winning streak snapped in a decision loss to Muhammad Mokaev.
“Mokaev is No. 9 [in the ranking] and would have gone for the belt should he beat Mokaev but he lost, so I truly believe this fight will define who’s next for the belt,” Silva said. “There’s no flyweight with four performance [bonuses] in a row like me, so I’m definitely one of the big names in the division. I’ll earn the next shot with a win. I live for this. With this win, another knockout and another performance [bonus], the belt is next.”
The Brazilian flyweight said he’s “super excited” to face Kape, and got some advice from his teammate ahead of UFC Tampa. Pantoja won a decision over the Angolan fighter back in 2021, spoiling the octagon debut of Kape, the RIZIN bantamweight champion at the time.
“Another knockout for ‘Bulldog,’” Silva said of his official prediction for Saturday. “‘Bulldog’ will land a hand, Kape will go down, and I’ll finish it on the ground and pound, just like last time. That’s what I’m envisioning here. He likes to be very technical and take his time in the fight. I can be very technical as well, but let’s go for it and put on another show.”