Bruno Silva hopes for shot at teammate Alexandre Pantoja with UFC Tampa win

Winner of four in a row in the UFC with a 100 percent finish rate and four performance bonuses cashed in, Bruno Silva sees his UFC Tampa clash with Manel Kape this Saturday as the final step before challenging for the flyweight championship.

“Bulldog,” who now lives in Florida and trains with UFC champion Alexandre Pantoja at American Top Team, said in an interview with MMA Fighting that he has already discussed with his friend the possibility of maybe fighting each other inside the octagon one day .

“Everybody has that dream,” Silva said. “We never want to fight a friend, I don’t want to fight Pantoja, but if it’s for the belt, we’ll fight. And he said exactly that, ‘I hope you fight (for the belt) because that’s the dream. We are friends, we fight for free every day here (at the gym) so we can make some money there.’ Fighting for the belt in the world’s biggest organization is everything we’ve always dreamed of. We’d rather fight a friend for the belt than someone we don’t even know.”

Silva stopped JP Buys, Victor Rodriguez, Tyson Nam and Cody Durden to collect an extra $200,000 in bonuses in his recent fights, while Kape recently had his four-fight winning streak snapped in a decision loss to Muhammad Mokaev.

“Mokaev is No. 9 (in the rankings) and would have gone for the belt if he beat Mokaev, but he lost, so I really think this fight will define who’s next for the belt,” Silva said. “There is no flyweight with four achievements (bonuses) in a row like me, so I am definitely one of the big names in the division. I earn the next shot with a win. I live for this. With this win, another knockout and another performance (bonus), the belt is next.”

The Brazilian flyweight said he is “super excited” to face Kape and had some advice from his teammate ahead of UFC Tampa. Pantoja won a decision over the Angolan fighter back in 2021, spoiling the octagon debut of Kape, the RIZIN bantamweight champion at the time.

“Another knockout for the ‘Bulldog’,” Silva said of his official prediction for Saturday. “‘Bulldog’ will land a hand, Kape will go down and I finish it on the ground and tap, just like last time. That’s what I envision here. He likes to be very technical and take his time in the fight .I can be very technical too, but let’s go after it and put on another show.”