Jean Silva credits wife for UFC success: ‘She is the greatest tool I have’

Jean Silva had an emotional Saturday night in Seattle.

The fast-rising featherweight earned his fourth UFC knockout win in a row against Melsik Baghdasaryan, but nearly started crying when announcer Bruce Buffer said his name. The Fighting Nerds standout ended up giving Buffer a pair of the team’s signature taped glasses, and in return Buffer gave Silva the card he read off of to introduce the fight.

Asked what prompted that level of emotion, Silva opened up about it being a constant feature in his life.

“It’s tough to talk about this because it’s something I have to deal with on a regular basis, on a daily basis,” he said through his translator. “My wife knows this because I go to the bathroom every morning when I wake up and I just stay there, it could be hours, dealing with emotions. And it’s not in a bad sense, there’s a lot of good stuff, but you need to be able to control that for it not to be a problem.”

“When I hear Bruce Buffer say my name, do you understand the number of people that would like to be in my place? There are many that do what I do, that dedicate themselves as much as or more than I do, that put in the work, that cannot be here. So much goes into it and I’m very fortunate, so all the emotions come out in that moment.”

Silva lets the tears come when asked about the impact his wife and corner Carol has had on his life.

“I don’t remember my past life before her, you know? I was a very problematic guy, I did a lot of bad things in life. And this woman gave me light. Ten years ago she gave me a path, showed me this world. I always thought I was a dumb guy. Damn. She took me to school, made me study, she made me finish my studies … She never gave up on me.”

“I met her training, she was my first teacher, and she’s still with me today … A man that is fighting with a wife … you have one of the greatest tools that you can have in MMA, in fighting … She is not my wife here. She is the greatest tool that I have to find my path to victory.”

Silva credited his wife with helping him break his opponents mentally in another interview with UFC.com.

“I come from a team that likes to study and map out opponents and have everything pretty much set,” Silva said. “But there’s some work that I do with my wife that’s actually getting into the mindset and getting into the mind of my opponents, understanding the emotional beast.”

“I tried to get into his head, it didn’t work at the start,” he continued. “I did some things to create some confusion in his head, and then I noticed when that first kick got in, I noticed it from then on that I got this.”