Article written by Scottie Kieffer
UFC Noche is here, and the featherweight main event of Diego Lopez and Jean Silva is a near 50/50 fight. But with recent events, including the camp of Jean Silva, The Fighting Nerds, many are saying to stay away from Silva this weekend. This once great camp with all the star power and potential in the world has seemed to fade away after losses from Carlos Prates to Ian Gerry, Mauricio Ruffy to Benoit Saint Denis, and Caio Borralho to Nassourdine Imavov. But what they won't tell you is these guys took the wrong fight at the wrong time.
When Ian Garry stepped up to face Carlos Prates, Garry was ranked 7th in the welterweight division, and Carlos Prates was ranked 13th in the same division. Carlos Prates took this fight on short notice, as he was supposed to fight Geoff Neal, who canceled the fight because of injury. This was an in-form Ian Gerry, who recently lost but put up a great fight against Shavkat Rakmonov, including nearly choking him out in round 4.
This was also a great step up in competition for prates on short notice, as their fight on April 26th was only announced on April 1st. That's less than a month to completely change a game plan for a fight. Although he lost this fight, the Neal fight was rescheduled, and he knocked him out in the first round with a spinning elbow. Prates seems to be back on track, though, as he's going to fight Leon Edwards on November 15th in the co-main event of the MSG card.
Back in March, Mauricio Ruffy gave us the knockout of the year with a spinning heel kick to Bobby Green. (No, I'm not calling him King Green) Ruffy was unranked at the time, and if he took down another ranked opponent, he would find his way into the top 15 of the tough lightweight division. The problem, he accepted a fight against Benoit Saint Denis.
BSD was fraud checked by The Dimond Dustin Poirier back in early 2024, then a humiliating defeat to Money Moicano in September of 24 had this man buried in the eyes of fans. Yet he started to turn it around with a good fight against Kyle Prepolec. He subbed him in round 2. BSD’s wrestling was too much for Ruffy as he made Ruffy tap in round 2 as well. Unlike Prates, it wasn’t the step up in competition that got the best of him; it was the wrong opponent.
Lastly, we go to Caio Borralho, the leader and most experienced of the Fighting Nerds. This man was on his 10th UFC fight, including his 2 on Dana White’s Contender Series. Borralho was ranked 7th in the middleweight division, while Imavov was ranked 2nd. Just weeks prior, he was 1st, but with DDP’s loss, he was bumped down. Before this fight, his hardest fight was against Old Man Jared Cannonier. This was a huge step up in competition when maybe a fight vs MVP or Adesanya would have been a better decision.
Looking back on these fights, The Fighting Nerds may have just taken the wrong fights at the wrong time. Which is a shame. The gym out of Brazil is my favorite group of fighters that care so much about the details and tendencies of other fighters, and finding their weaknesses is a breath of fresh air in the UFC. Silva is 10th, taking on Lopez, who is 2nd in the featherweight ranking, but the difference is that Jean Silva already has a Top 15 win in Bryce Mitchell in April of this year. Also, Lopez took a massive step up in competition.
He fought Ortega last year, ranked 12th then lost a title fight to Alex Volkanovski after he jumped to 3rd. As a massive fan of this camp, I hope Jean Silva can get the win this weekend and prove that he should be next in line to fight Alex Volkanovski early next year.
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