‘Too Much Respect’

Three-fight Professional Fighters League (PFL) veteran, Josh Silveira, has a great reason behind his first-ever mixed martial arts (MMA) loss: fighting his teammate affected him more than he thought it would.

Silveira returns to action tomorrow night (Sat., April 1, 2023) against Australian fighter, Sam Kei, at PFL 1 2023, which will take place inside The Theater at Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas, Nevada. The 30-year-old suffered his first professional loss last year in PFL’s semifinals when he tangled with American Top Team (ATT) teammate, Omari Akhmedov. In the weeks leading up to the bout, Silveira said he wouldn’t have a problem fighting Akhmedov because the training partners knew they would scrap before the season started.

However, it turned out to be a factor in his loss.

“I was fighting my teammate,” Silveira told MMAmania.com in a recent interview. “Um, that was, you know, a factor into [my loss], you know, I think everything happened too fast. I’m not really a guy looking for excuses too much, but maybe things happened too fast, too quick for me.

“I think it was a couple of things that played a factor in it,” Silveira continued. “I think one: I was scared. I was scared about getting tired, too. I was just telling myself, ‘he knows I’m gonna wrestle, he knows I’m gonna wrestle,’ and obviously, he does know. But, the thing is, I’m best when it doesn’t matter what you know, or what you don’t know, or what you’ve seen, or you don’t see. It should be, can you stop it? And I wasn’t that Josh Silveira, the guy that implements his gameplan.

“I was just scared to get tired,” he added. “It was a big moment for me versus just being how I usually am, man. I’m not scared to get tired. I know how to fight. I know how to fight a fast fight, or I know how to fight a long fight. You know, I train with the best guys in the world. Whether it’s my teammate or not, you know? I think it was just giving too much — in a nice way, too much respect to the situation. And I learned from it. It was a big lesson. I don’t like it, but it’s part of me now.”

Teammates fighting teammates isn’t going to stop anytime soon — especially in PFL’s Light Heavyweight division — because ATT has potentially five fighters competing in the 2023 season: Silveira, Akhmedov, Krzysztof Jotko, Thiago Santos and Antonio Carlos Junior.

“Me and [Thiago Santos] probably worked out more than Omar and I did,” Silveira said. “So, we’ve talked about it. And not just Thiago, Krzysztof Jotko is another teammate. Me and [Jotko] worked out a lot. We’re one of the few southpaws in the gym, so whenever we have to fight a southpaw, we always look out for each other. But, yeah, man. It is what it is, man. PFL is a growing organization.

“What can I be upset about?” Silveira concluded. “So, if it happens, it happens. And if it does happen, I hope it happens in the finals. You know, I mean, so we could just enjoy it and just make history together.”

---

For more PFL 1 2023 news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive archive right here.