Las Vegas — The Fighting Nerds, which Jean Silva is a big part of, had a rough finish to 2025 after being red-hot earlier in the year.
Featherweight Silva now returns to action at UFC 324 this weekend, helping kick off the Paramount+ era for the promotion against Arnold Allen, while also looking to right the ship for the Brazilian fight camp.
“We went back and [shared] a lot of suffering, a lot of pain, a lot of talking; we all had to sit down and share some things,” Silva (16-3) told Cageside Press during Wednesday’s UFC 324 media day, asked about how the team regrouped. “Because you can’t go back into this, you can’t get back into the path, to such a dream we’ve had our entire lives, [that] we’ve worked so hard for, with that pain and suffering in our chest. You need to get over that.”
“We had a lot of conversations, and you can be sure that the Nerds didn’t stop, that we didn’t budge, but we kept going, we kept training, we kept working. And we’re ready for the next challenge.”
Silva, who had been undefeated in the UFC prior to a loss to Diego Lopes last September, went on to say that “we know the expectations that are around The Nerds, and what people think and the trust that was put in us. The UFC has our glasses, they have shirts with our names on them.”
“The UFC places a value on us, so you can be sure that… …some of that unifying denominator we had, that union was kind of lost along the way, but we found ourselves again, you can be sure. We found ourselves again, we’re working towards it, we talked it over, and we continue to work. And it’s going to be together. As a team, as a family, and we’ll be back doing the thing we love the most.”
Saying that his morale was high, Silva started Wednesday’s media session by saying that when it comes to launching the Paramount+ era as the first fight on the UFC 324 main card, “there are jobs that only special people can do, and for sure, I am that special person.”
When it comes to Arnold Allen, meanwhile, “he’s lost to a lot of people, former champions, number one title contenders, and he’s going to lose to the next champion,” the Brazilian stated.
It’s not surprise that Silva sees himself as the next featherweight champion, but he has some work to do to get there. The man he lost to back in September, Lopes, is fighting for gold next. Silva recognizes that beating Allen, however, won’t be what really punches his ticket to gold.
“It’s not going to be him and a win against him that is going to propel me to a championship, a title shot,” Silva suggested. “It’s the way I conduct business, the way I have this personality. Listen, who else barks in the octagon? That speaks for itself.”
Watch the full UFC 324 media day appearance by Jean Silva above.
