{"id":626191,"date":"2026-04-24T19:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T19:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/626191\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T19:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T19:36:09","slug":"jean-silva-skipping-movsar-evloev-for-ufc-title-shot-wouldnt-be-surprising-says-retired-veteran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/626191\/","title":{"rendered":"Jean Silva skipping Movsar Evloev for UFC title shot wouldn’t be surprising, says retired veteran"},"content":{"rendered":"

If Jean Silva gets the next UFC featherweight title shot over Movsar Evloev, don\u2019t expect Michael Chiesa to be surprised.<\/p>\n

Some MMA fans and experts believe that Evloev shouldn\u2019t gotten the 145-pound title opportunity after defeating Aljamain Sterling in late 2024. Evloev ended up missing all of 2025, but he returned in March to defeat Lerone Murphy via majority decision.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Silva has been pounding the table for a title fight against the current featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski. \u201cLord\u201d argues that his exciting fighting style is what the UFC matchmakers are looking for these days.<\/p>\n

During an interview with MMAJunkie.com<\/a>, Chiesa said he wouldn\u2019t be shocked if Silva ended up being next in line over Evloev.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould you be surprised if they give it to Jean Silva?\u201d Chiesa said. \u201cIt should be Movsar for sure just given the fact he\u2019s undefeated. You also have to take into account that I think Movsar Evloev has been booked 21 times and has only fought 10 or something. I know he\u2019s had staph a couple times, he\u2019s had injury woes. Some things that are out of his control. But a lot of times that\u2019s overtraining and pushing things too much. It should be Movsar Evloev, but I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if it\u2019s Jean Silva.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Aljamain Sterling and Youssef Zalal will be competing in the featherweight main event of UFC Vegas 116. Chiesa doesn\u2019t believe the outcome will make a dent in terms of what the next featherweight title fight will be.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter who wins between Zalal and Sterling, I don\u2019t think they\u2019re going to be the next person,\u201d Chiesa said. \u201cI think it\u2019s Movsar, Jean Silva and whoever is left, whoever wins between Aljo and Zalal is going to be left to fight whoever doesn\u2019t get picked between Jean Silva and Movsar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Volkanovski has said he prefers to fight<\/a> Evloev next based on merit. Whether or not the UFC brass feels the same way remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, who do you think gets the next crack at the UFC Featherweight Championship. Join in on the conversation below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If Jean Silva gets the next UFC featherweight title shot over Movsar Evloev, don\u2019t expect Michael Chiesa to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":["post-626191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626191","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=626191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}