Heel Turn?! Lucky ‘Rocky’ Fight Proved MBS Is ‘Best Bantamweight’

Mayra Bueno Silva isn’t feeling set back by her first career loss in the Bantamweight division.

UFC 297 saw Brazil’s “Sheetara” compete in her first UFC title bout this past January 2024. Unfortunately for her, she ran into the veteran perennial contender-turned-champion, Raquel Pennington, and lost a fairly lopsided unanimous decision.

Despite the defeat of the finisher, Bueno Silva (10-3-1, 1 no contest) still believes she’s the division’s best.

“She don’t like to fight, you know?” Bueno Silva said of Pennington at UFC 303 media day. “She thinks she’s the champion but I will prove I am the best. I proved I am the best in first round, but she had luck, punched my eardrum, explosion. She don’t like fight.”

“I think the people saw that I am the best in the world because I was able to actually neutralize and keep her at bay in that first round,” she added.

“As everybody knows, I had an injury starting in the second round,” Bueno Silva concluded. “So when I was 100 percent, she wasn’t able to do anything, and that’s the lesson I can take out of it.”

Bueno Silva, 32, looks to rebound when she takes on the No. 7-ranked contender, Macy Chiasson, at UFC 303 this weekend (Sat., June 29, 2024). Since Bueno Silva last fought, her American Top Team (ATT) teammate, Kayla Harrison, successfully debuted (watch highlights) and shook up the division. Although the former two-time Professional Fighters League (PFL) Lightweight titlist, Harrison, is potentially next in line for UFC’s champion, Pennington, Bueno Silva expects a win over Chiasson to be enough to get her back to a title tilt.

“I believe I am next because I finish my fights,” Bueno Silva said. “I have a lot of Performance of the Night, I have a lot of Fight of the Night [bonuses]. No one exists in this division, nobody like me. I am the best.”

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