ONE Championship title contender Alex Silva talks about overcoming bullying growing up due to MMA [Exclusive]

Modified Jan 20, 2020 07:40 GMT

ONE Championship's Alex Silva will be facing Joshua Pacio in a title fight that has long been awaited. The ONE Strawweight Championship will be up for grabs as Silva makes his bid for the MMA title.

Before the event, I was able to catch up with Alex Silva and talk to him about the fight and more.

I asked him about his last victory over Xuewen Peng and what he thought of his performance there. Silva was self-critical about his own performance in the fight and said that although he was happy with the victory, he could have done better.

I was happy with the victory but not satisfied with my performance. Because there is always something to fix.

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One of the ways that Alex Silva has finished a lot of his opponents lately, is with the help of the armbar. The armbar has been an important part of his arsenal, but he revealed that he never planned for it to become so important as he had a lot of different ways to pick up wins.

I have a lot of different ways to submit. I did not plan to go for the armbar. Somehow it just happened so it ends up like this.

Talking about his upcoming title fight, he revealed that he was grateful for the opportunity that was presented to him.

I am happy with the opportunity given . It is my goal to get a chance to fight for the title and to get the belt back.

Growing up, Alex found himself to be the victim of bullying. It was MMA that came to his rescue as he was able to learn how to protect himself and he learned discipline through his lessons in BJJ.

Yes. Every kind of sport is good for kids, for children . Because in sports/martial arts you get to set goals, learn about discipline, learn to protect yourself, and build your personality.

Finally, talking about 2020, he revealed he had some clear cut goals and things that he wanted to achieve.