Joshua Silveira Aiming to Show More Mature Version of Himself

Professional Fighters League light heavyweight Joshua Silveira believes 2023 will be the right moment to leave a mark on the industry thanks to his new and improved version of himself.

Sometimes, it takes a loss to force one to look for improvement, and nobody better than Silveira (9-1, 2-1 PFL) knows that. Last year, Silveira was stopped a step from paradise as he lost a decision to fellow American Top Team representative Omari Akhmedov in the tournament’s playoffs. After that fight, Silveira spent much time in the gym to polish his skills, but mostly he worked on his mentality. At 30, Silveira realized the window to build a legacy in mixed martial arts is pretty narrow, that’s why he’s hungry to become the 2023 champion. In his first 2023 assignment, Silveira will face Sam Kei on April 1, a perfect occasion to showcase the new and mature version of himself.

“I took it exactly how anybody takes defeat. Defeat’s not nice. It doesn't feel good. Just like winning feels amazing, defeat feels the opposite, but you build from it. It doesn’t make you who you are. It doesn’t say that you're a bad fighter. If anything, it helps you find some little bit more of a guide of where you got to go. Sometimes, if you're winning, winning, winning, winning, winning, who knows what you got to do, you know? Taking this loss, I know it sounds a little bit of what everyone says when they lose, ah, they change this, they change that. I think the thing I changed it the most was how I view MMA. I love this sport. I'm obsessed with the sport. You only have a little bit of a window. For me, it was just to treat it with a little bit more respect and with trying to actually train harder, but sustain the right lifestyle as go to bed early, right die, little things like that.”

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro
(00:33) His morning session
(01:19) His father cornering Ivan Erslan in Poland
(02:12) Training with Erslan
(02:49) Losing to Akhmedov
(04:02) His first professional loss
(06:09) Teasing a more mature version of himself
(09:12) Training with Dalton Rosta
(10:31) Whether he saw Akhmedov in the gym after their fight
(11:46) Commenting on Thiago Santos’ PFL debut
(12:36) Outro