In today’s UFC, you have two classes of contenders. There’s the quiet guys who have built up wild winning streaks but lack a certain flair on the mic and social media. And then there’s the ones with less than perfect records who remain in the mix because of their clear popularity with the fans.
Sure, Silva just lost to Diego Lopes in September 2025. But he rode Arnold Allen like a surf board at UFC 324 in one of the most viral moments of the night. He cries, he barks, he says crazy things. He fights like a wild man, unlike the tough but often tedious Evloev and Murphy. And he wasn’t impressed with Volk dismissing him as a contender.
“A champion’s responsibility is to defend the belt,” Silva wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “It doesn’t matter who it’s against. If the company puts someone in front of you, you fight. Champions don’t pick opponents. Champions defend.”
“I know that Volkanovski is asking for Evloev, I don’t know [why],” Silva said in a video post. “He’s asking the guys not to get hurt. Bro, sorry to inform you if you want to stay good and without getting hurt, I understand you. But if you want to fight a guy who hits hard, I’m your guy and I will tell you more: I’m going there to camp with [Ilia] Topuria to break you. I’ll let you know. I’ll warn you, I go there.”
Volkanovski shrugged off Silva’s comments at the UFC 325 post-fight press conference, suggesting “Lord” was upset because Fighting Nerds teammate Mauricio Ruffy trained with Volk in Australia for his fight against Rafael Fiziev.
“He said that [he would work with Topuria]? Okay,” Volkanovski replied. “I don’t know. I think he’s a bit upset about the Ruffy thing.”
“Supposedly, I don’t know if it’s real that he doesn’t follow Ruffy anymore,” he added. “I don’t know. It shouldn’t be like that. It’s nothing like that. I don’t know why he’s getting so butt hurt about that.”
“I don’t think it was anything more than you’ve got Ruffy, who’s a part of Engage Industries at the moment, AP Management. We connected through that, did a bit of training, and he’s obviously a very good guy. An incredible guy. One of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet and obviously just wanted to work with me. So I was always going to work with him. I know [Rafael Fiziev], that was tough because I know Rafael as well, but I was always going to work with Ruffy. I think Jean Silva took that to heart.”
Unless yet another more popular fighter with better mic skills comes along at featherweight.
