PFL light heavyweight semifinalist Josh Silveira will be looking at a familiar foe in Hollywood, FL on August 16.
That would be Impa Kasanganay, the man who beat him at the 2023 PFL Championship, denying Silveira both a title and a million dollars.
The rematch comes a little earlier this year, in the semifinals rather than finals. Either way, Silveira (13-3) feels blessed to have the chance to avenge one of three career losses.
“Whatever is presented to me is presented to me. I like the fact, I’m super-blessed and I like the fact that I get to fight him again. That doesn’t happen very often, as much as we would like it to happen when we lose to somebody,” Silveira told Cageside Press in a recent interview. “Sometimes you just move on.”
Instead, he continued by saying “Here we are again, in the semis man. I get to rewrite a little bit of that chapter that we thought we closed, but I guess we get to open it up again.”
As much as he is re-writing a chapter, or at least extending it, Josh Silveira is looking at this rematch as a very different animal. “This is a whole new fight. I’m super-excited. Obviously in the perfect world, get a rematch with Impa and then maybe with Rob [Wilkinson], and that would be like a double-banger. But Rob’s fighting my teammate, so I’m not going to wish no bad vibes on that happening.”
Silveira is expecting a very different fight, “150%,” with Kasanganay this time around. “I think it’s going to be killed or be killed in there. I’m not just going to get my ass beat for 25 minutes like I did last time,” he stated. “I can’t tell you the results but I can tell you that, I’m going to fight him with tons of attitude. You’re going to see that same attitude that I fought [with] against Rob, but way more. Way more. Rob helped me find it a little bit, now I have this sh*t in my back pocket.”
There’s never been much trash talk between Silveira and Kasanganay, two respectful fighters who have proven to be true martial artists at their core. There’s a bit of a rivalry between their respective gyms, ATT for Silveira and Kill Cliff for Kasanganay, but even that doesn’t seem to factor in much. For Silveira, it’s all about getting back what was lost last year.
“I don’t give a sh*t if he’s the nicest guy. I’m not going to let that distract me. That man took something from me, and I have the opportunity to take something back from him. I’m going to jump on this opportunity. ATT against Kill Cliff, that just makes it a little bit more spicy, but at the end of the day it’s just me and Impa in there.”
Watch our full interview with PFL Hollywood’s Josh Silveira above.
