PFL veteran Josh Silveira has a new purpose in life after the birth of his first child Lua. With his heart full of joy and a few gray hairs, the 33-year-old battles undefeated Jordan Newman in the co-main event of PFL Chicago on April 11 with a different mindset and goal.<\/p>\n
Silveira took some time off to properly enjoy the first months after his baby was born, living life at its fullest before shifting his focus back to his athletic career. Lua\u2019s first birthday is a month after PFL Chicago and he plans to have more reasons to celebrate, but parenting has given him a new perspective of things.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day it\u2019s good for my life, you know?\u201d Silveira told MMA Fighting. \u201cLife isn\u2019t just fighting. I\u2019m a father, I have a family, so it was good to be present in those moments. And she\u2019s only going to be a baby once, right? When she grows up she\u2019ll have friends, she\u2019ll forget about me [laughs]. Right now she\u2019s my best friend \u2014 I\u2019m her only friend [laughs]. She likes being around people. I don\u2019t want to miss that part not being here, because I was training.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silveira grew up in a martial arts environment. Son of American Top Team leader Conan Silveira, he always had \u201cbig dreams for myself like winning, becoming a champion.\u201d At 33, Silveira realized there\u2019s more than that in life.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor my parents too, of course, I want to do well for them, but it was always my dream,\u201d Silveira said. \u201cNow with her in my life, it feels like it boosts my dream, you know? I want to do so much more. Now I have a much more serious reason. I want to do everything not just for her, but for my family, for the future, to change the level where my family is. I\u2019m doing something I love \u2014 I really love MMA \u2014 and I\u2019m doing good things for my family and I\u2019m becoming a better human being. I\u2019m growing in all the areas where I want to grow in life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lua has yet to turn 1 year old but Silveira is already dreaming of having another \u201clittle human\u201d around him at home. For now, though, the goal is being the best parent he can \u2014 and walking through Jordan Newman to get paid in full at PFL Chicago.<\/p>\n
Newman is a 8-0 prospect patiently built under the Bellator banner, winning seven bouts in that promotion before stopping Eslam Abdul Baset in his first PFL appearance. They are about the same age, but Silveira looks at his MMA experience, having twice more fights, as a big advantage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve asked for big fights, I\u2019ve cried, I\u2019ve been broken, I\u2019ve gotten back up and kept moving forward,\u201d Silveira said. \u201cFight life isn\u2019t just happiness. There are parts that really suck, your mind working against you. I\u2019m not saying anything about his life, but just in fighting, I don\u2019t think he\u2019s felt that yet. Sometimes you grow more when you lose. I\u2019m happy to be facing him while he\u2019s undefeated because I can give him something that will only make him better when it happens. I don\u2019t want to fight him later, you know? People come back stronger after their first loss, they learn things, so I\u2019m going to take advantage of the fact that he hasn\u2019t felt that yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newman, nicknamed \u201cNot Human,\u201d scored finishes in five of his eight professional bouts with three knockouts and two submissions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019ll try to use his wrestling when I put pressure on him,\u201d Silveira said. \u201cBut he\u2019ll get tired and he will face problems, and I\u2019ll have a lot of answers. He\u2019ll either give me the opening to finish the fight or he\u2019ll just let me beat him and I win by decision. I\u2019m not in a hurry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silveira is not in a hurry for a finish Saturday, nor for a long-awaited shot at the PFL middleweight title. A former light heavyweight season finalist in 2023, he just walks one step at a time now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like the belt, I want the belt, that\u2019s always the focus, but I\u2019m a father, I have a family. I just want to work,\u201d Silveira said. \u201cIf they want to give me two, three, four fights and then the title, no problem. I just want to win. I\u2019m in a good place mentally. I just want to work. I\u2019m not here for a long time. I\u2019m 33, turning 34 this year, and I don\u2019t have much time left to fight. I don\u2019t want to work after fighting [laughs]. If I have to, I will, but I don\u2019t want to, you know?<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to enjoy life, stay at home, take care of my plants, have chickens. I want to be a farmer, you know? So for me, if the belt comes [next], great. If they want to wait, no problem. When the time comes to fight for the belt, I\u2019ll fight, but I\u2019m not in a rush. I know I\u2019ve got one shot in this run and I have to make it count. I don\u2019t want to waste my shot when it\u2019s not the right moment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PFL veteran Josh Silveira has a new purpose in life after the birth of his first child Lua.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,1863,8417,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-593991","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-pfl","14":"tag-pfl-news","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}