Felipe Silva: “The UFC Is The MMA World Cup”

In an interview with MMA Junkie, Felipe Silva (7-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) said that the UFC is like the world cup of MMA. He will make his debut in the promotion tonight when he fights Shane Campbell (12-5 MMA, 1-3 UFC) at UFC on FOX 21. The event happens at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver. It airs on FOX preliminary fights on UFC Fight Pass. Here are highlights:

On being excited to be in the UFC: “I’m very happy to be under contract with the UFC. It’s everything a modern fighter aims for. The UFC is the MMA World Cup. It’s like the Champions League in soccer. I’m very happy. I was hired seven weeks ahead of the card, so this is no short-notice replacement. My fight against Shane Campbell will be a great fight. We both prefer to fight standing, so that’s how expect it will go.”

On fighting in Campbell’s home country: “It doesn’t bother me to fight away from home, in Canada. As a matter of fact, I somewhat prefer to fight away from home. To be the underdog, to have the fans against me – it motivates me even more. I’m confident we’ll have a war. Shane is coming off two losses, so I’m sure he’ll be very aggressive to try to secure a victory. But he’ll be facing someone strong, determined, who’ll be looking to knock him out the entire time. I don’t think we’ll last all three rounds.