It’s Holly Holm, not Miesha Tate, who Mayra Bueno Silva faces off with at UFC Vegas 77 this weekend.
Tate was Silva’s originally scheduled opponent, but when an injury forced one ex-champ out, the fight was pushed back, and Holm stepped in.
“I think Holly is more difficult, because she loves her job,” Silva (10-2-1) said during Wednesday’s UFC Vegas 77 media day. “I think this is more hard. She insists on not getting out of this.”
Getting five rounds with Holly Holm is a daunting task for anyone, but Silva is nothing if not aggressive. “I want to hurt her. I want to hurt her for four rounds, and in the fifth round, I’ll knock out Holly,” Silva predicted.
Asked if she would still like the fight with Miesha Tate, Mayra Bueno Silva said her dream is to fight with all the former champions. Much like another Brazilian bantamweight champ once did.
“This is my dream, this is my dream to fight with every former champion, because Amanda [Nunes] made history when she won [against] every girl,” stated Silva. “I want to do the same thing.”
Nunes did, in fact, beat every women’s bantamweight champion to have come before her — Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate, and Holly Holm — plus featherweight champions Germaine de Randamie and Cris Cyborg, and Valentina Shevchenko, who would go on to win flyweight gold after fighting Nunes twice. In the case of Silva, only Tate, Holm, and de Randamie remain (and Shevchenko, though a bantamweight return feels unlikely).
Regardless, the road to gold starts Saturday for Silva, and she believes she’ll need a knockout to jump the line to a title shot. Otherwise, Julianna Pena vs. Raquel Pennington seems to be the direction the UFC is going. Silva, however, is not a fan.
“Nobody wants to watch Julianna Pena-Raquel Pennington. Sorry.”
Watch the full UFC Vegas 77 media day appearance by Mayra Bueno Silva above.
