It’s that time when I remember to do Fighter Studies after looking at a future card and thinking oh, that guy is fun. Let me watch a few of his fights. This time, it’s on another Fighting Nerd in Jean Silva. If you want to check out my previous Fighter Studies on another Fighting Nerd in Carlos Prates, you can click here.
Name: Jean Silva
Age: 28
Fighting out of: São Paulo, Brazil
Record: 14-2
Height: 5’7 (170 cm)
Reach: 69.0” (175 cm)
Weight: 145 lbs
Contender Series v Kevin Vallejos(11-0)
In Silva’s Contender Series bout, he met future UFC fighter Kevin Vallejos.
Silva starts the fight, switching stances and throwing to the body, which lands well, but Vallejos is eating and walking Silva down.
Vallejos fights with a very boxing-heavy stance, which does well against Silva as Silva struggles to stop Vallejos from walking him down and digging into his body.
Silva tries to be his wild self, but against a guy like Vallejos, he is not getting much success.
Vallejos has more success against Silva when he pressures Silva and rips to the body which has been Vallejos’ best weapon early in this fight.
The first round can be best described as the explosiveness of Silva against the technicality of Vallejos. In the first round, Vallejos’ more technical game plan worked better than Silva's.
Silva starts to tighten up his punches, which does well as he lands cleaner than he did in the first round.
Silva gets caught being explosive, but not much happens, and it’s right back to action.
Silva seems to like to enter with a lead elbow, as he does it a few times early in the second round.
Silva has picked up his volume and pressure in the second round which is doing good against Vallejos as he doesn’t seem to know how to deal with it.
Silva starts to land good shots and does stumble Vallejos against the cage with a knee and elbow, but Vallejos is able to survive.
Silva turns it on late in the second round and can’t miss landing on Vallejos until the round ends.
The fight is clearly 1-1 going into the third round, with Vallejos starting strong in round 1 and Silva finding his flow in the second.
Both guys are struggling to take control of the third round. Vallejos had some nice stuff to the body, but Silva also landed well up top.
Silva starts to find his rhythm again with about two minutes in the round left landing a big lead uppercut.
Silva gets a big takedown but doesn’t do anything with it.
Silva turns it up again late in the round landing a nice flying knee and throwing punches till the final bell.
Silva would take the unanimous decision in a great competitive fight. Vallejos gave Silva a challenge to try and crack, and he was able to and he earned a UFC Contract because of it.
UFC Vegas 84 v Westin Wilson(16-8)
His first fight under the UFC banner came against Westin Wilson, who, at 6’1, is one of the taller featherweights you would find for Silva, who is 5’7, it was a good test to try to work out.
Wilson fights in a karate-heavy stance as well as being a southpaw, which gives most people many questions to try and figure out.
Silva is trying to get Wilson to bite on faints and counter when Wilson rushes in, which he does well when he lands a counter hook as Wilson enters and drops him for a second.
Silva is just marching down Wilson, which he does not like, and finds himself against the cage where Silva enters and gets a quick trip, but it returns to the feet fairly quickly.
Silva invites pressure from Wilson, who has his hands low, which Silva uses to explode and land a big hook and straight, which stumbles Wilson, and from there, Silva picks up the pressure as he senses a finish.
Silva starts to land big strikes until Wilson is practically out on his feet, but he does well to hold on for a while and tries to shoot takedowns against Silva, who is alert for them.
Silva gets back to landing big against the cage until the ref stops the fight.
Fun debut for Silva. He showed how explosive he is and worked well against a guy who’s tall and rangy which is always a challenge.
UFC 303 v Charles Jourdain(15-7-1)
Jean Silva’s next fight would be against a very respectable opponent, Charles Jourdain, who is quite a step up from his last opponent. Unfortunately, Silva missed weight, but the fight still went ahead.
Just like the last fight, Silva’s opponent starts the fight from a southpaw stance, which means he will have to figure out the lead foot battle.
Silva is doing a good job early of staying just outside for when Jourdain kicks, which Jourdain will overextend himself, which means he could be open for a counter if Silva times it.
Silva is doing a good job of pushing Jourdain against the cage with his pressure, as it means he can’t really load up a kick.
Jourdain is up against the cage again, but this time shoots a takedown, which Silva tries to counter with a guillotine attempt, but neither do much, and then they both stand up.
Jourdain tries to switch stances and attack Silva but gets countered as he enters by Silva, who drops Jourdain, but Silva wants him back up to go for the finish.
Silva ups his pressure and throws big strikes that Jourdain does not like. Jourdain tries to get a takedown to stop Silva from landing, but Silva lands big elbows while defending the takedown.
Jourdain gets a late takedown, but nothing happens to end round 1.
Jourdain gets a takedown early in the second round to stop Silva’s pressure, but Silva does a good job of defending and getting the fight back to the feet.
Off the break of the takedown, Silva lands a beautiful uppercut that knocks Jourdain out cold, and the fight is over.
Fantastic performance by Silva. He looked strong and powerful, which caused Jourdain a ton of issues, and the finish was very well done and one of the best uppercut knockouts you’ll see.
UFC On ESPN 59 v Drew Dober(27-13)
In his most recent fight to date, he took on UFC vet Drew Dober up a weight class at 155 after fighting two weeks previously at UFC 303.
Both guys are explosive in the first round, with a cut already opening up on Dober midway through the first round.
The pace both guys set in the first round is crazy, with Dober trying to pressure and land, but Silva is landing well, countering Dober on his way in.
The first round was great fun from both guys just going for it. Dober is just full straight ahead even if he’s getting hit and Silva is keeping the pace up as well and countering well.
A weird moment in the second round when Silva looks at Dober’s corner to complain and gets caught by Dober, but he eats it and goes back to fighting.
Both guys are trading big strikes midway through the round, with Dober landing uppercuts.
What Silva is doing good in this fight is landing counter shots as they are really adding up on Dober’s face and opening up the cut that happened in the first round.
Silva lands the best strike of the fight with three seconds left with a spinning elbow that wobbles Dober, who only survives because the round ends.
Silva drops Dober again with the spinning elbow in the third round and lands another that causes the ref to step in to call the doctor to look at the cut on Dober, which is bleeding badly.
The doctor looks at the cut and calls the fight, so Jean Silva wins due to a doctor’s stoppage in the third round.
OVERALL THOUGHTS:
Jean Silva is such a fun fighter to watch, as is the Fighting Nerds way. His pressure and explosiveness are hard for people to deal with and always lead to an exciting fight. He fights this weekend at UFC Seattle against Melsik Baghdasaryan, which should be a fun, striking fight.
