Following his loss to Lyoto Machida at UFC 94, Thiago Silva tells us how his first knockout defeat affected his “soul.” Silva was able to quickly bounce back with a victory over Keith Jardine at UFC 102, but his loss to Machida will stay in his head until he is able to acquire his rematch sometime down the road.
While appearing as guest analyst on ESPN MMA Live, Rashad Evans confirmed that he would be facing Thiago Silva in the main event, in large part due to a confrontation between the two backstage at UFC 102. According to Evans, the two had a stare down after he approached Silva to congratulate him on his victory over good friend Keith Jardine.
Their bout is scheduled for UFC 108 on January 2nd, 2010 and will take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
From Thiago Silva via tatame.com:
“[In regards to his UFC 108 fight against Rashad Evans] I am well trained, gas, almost the weight and still missing two months. I’m working hard conditioning first, then begin to enter the technical part of the strategy…Everyone can expect a lively fight. Everyone knows that I’m an aggressive guy, but also reaches a certain point that we have to be aggressive, but smart. I study his game here and the easiest way I find to reach a victory is what will be done…[In regards to a rematch fight against Lyoto Machida] It was the first defeat of my career, it hurt the soul, I made several mistakes and unfortunately had to learn from defeat, but I’m here and I want my revenge…The strategic part, I went a lot to fight, but it reaches a level that has, for more comfortable that we have to fight, the technical strategy and count. I think the strategy is 50% of the way and should be well done…Training is as strong as ever, especially now with the arrival of new galley, like Kimbo (Slice), Denis Kang is back, training is even stronger and we are there on the run. The training is a total mess, I had never seen the academy as it is now. The drills are being more difficult than a fight … We have some 15 partners tops the Lard is training with me here, is one of the best tracks for me, is parceirão, is helping me to train … Is excellent, I have no complaints. [In regards to training with Kimbo Slice] Kimbo is a fighter and is hard to mesh with the gang. He is an athlete’s level, will fight in December and the guys are giving a strength. I think he will fight to 93kg, amid heavy.”
