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Radley Da Silva's Life Has Led To This Moment | UFC Fight Pass
Battlefield Fight League Featherweight Champion Talks Growing Up In Martial Arts, Winding Road To Rising Star Status
Nearly 11 years after making his professional mixed martial arts debut, Radley Da Silva has built a four-fight winning streak that has carried him to championship gold under the Battlefield Fight League banner and landed him on the precipice of earning an opportunity to audition to fight at the highest level in the sport.
When you hear that timeline, most would conjure an image of a battle-harden competitor embarking on a late-career renaissance; a grizzled veteran in their early or mid-30s finally stringing together an extended run of success in order to make one last real go of things.
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What you don’t necessarily picture is a 28-year-old with just five appearances under their belt, and yet that’s exactly where Da Silva stands as he readies to defend his BFL featherweight title against Caleb Moctezuma on Thursday evening at BFL 80, available exclusively on UFC FIGHT PASS.
“A lot of people would probably assume that with 2011 as my first fight,” Da Silva said with a laugh, acknowledging his early start makes both his age and relatively limited number of appearances he’s made to date slightly surprising when you don’t know his personal history with the sport.
Da Silva was born into a family of martial artists and knew from a very early age that his life would revolve around them.
Beginning with capoeira, he eventually started adding disciplines to the mix, and ultimately dipped his toes into the MMA waters with an amateur debut in the summer of 2011. Two years later, he took and lost his first pro fight, and while there were extended periods since then where “Snake Eyes” has been stationed on the sidelines, that doesn’t mean he wasn’t continuing to hone his craft and, perhaps more importantly, develop as a person.
“I’ve been doing martial arts since I was five years old,” began Da Silva, who had the rare opportunity to share the fight card with his father, Andre Da Silva, at BFL 25 several years ago. “I was born into a family of martial artists, so I really knew nothing else my whole life, growing up.
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“I’ve always known I was going to do this, but there is a certain point where it’s all you’ve known your whole life, and those moments of inactivity were moments to grow as a person and mature. I was trying to get fights throughout those times when I was inactive, but it’s extremely hard to get fights here in Canada when you have a decent name because your family has done martial arts and made a name for themselves.
“People see you have a low record, so they don’t want to risk it,” he continued, touching on an all-too-common challenge for hopefuls looking to garner experience, particularly on the relatively sparse Canadian MMA landscape. “There were plenty of times I was scheduled to fight and they would fall through, and eventually I just got to the point where I let go of trying to force my MMA career.
“When I started doing that, things started coming way easier.”
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This week’s bout with Moctezuma will be the third in eight months for Da Silva after going roughly four years between his third and fourth career appearances, and the first defense of his BFL featherweight title, which he won back in February with a unanimous decision victory over Maxime Soucy.
While he’s short on fights compared to his opponent, the defending champion points to the quality of opponents he’s faced as one of the key elements that give him a leg up in this highly anticipated matchup on Thursday night in Vancouver.
“He’s a tough fighter and he comes to scrap,” began Da Silva, offering his thoughts on Moctezuma, who earned this opportunity with a first-round stoppage win over Gagan Gill on that same February fight card. “From what I’ve seen, the guy likes to bang. As far as looking at his record, seeing the level of opponents he’s been fighting, it’s not the best
“He’s fought maybe two guys with a winning record that he’s beaten before his last two fights with Mike Imperato and Gagan Gill. For me, I’m going out there and dominating guys with winning records for the entire fight, leaving no doubt that I’m the better fighter and if we were to fight 10 times, I’d win eight of those.
“It’s a different level of competitor he’s going to be going up against on May 9th,” added the champion. “I respect his skill, I respect his punching power. I respect him as an opponent and I’m taking it as the hardest fight of my life.
“He’s the perfect test for where I am at this point in my career.”
And where Da Silva is at right now is precisely where he’s supposed to be.
Despite the extended periods without fights and the 11-year stretch between his debut and his title defense on Thursday evening, everything in life has prepared him to be at this point, in this moment, and the proud father and promising Canadian fighter exhibits an uncommon maturity and poise about it all.
“I knew since I was a young kid that I’m not gonna be an academic, I’m not gonna be in an office,” began Da Silva. “I knew I was gonna teach martial arts, work in film the way I do now, and fight. It’s very comfortable. It’s like you walk through a door and people get amazed when you do.
“How did you do that?” he asked, playing the role of a bewildered onlooker before answering, “Well, I’ve been walking and opening doors my whole life.”
Funny as it sounds, it’s actually a perfect encapsulation of things because Da Silva really has been doing this for his entire life, and after spending time on the mats with many of the best the Lower Mainland has produced over the years, the Battlefield Fight League featherweight champion is eager for his moment in the sun.
“I’ve been in the gym watching Tristan (Connelly) go from 5-5 all the way to the UFC. I’ve watched Achilles (Estremadura) go from amateur to Dana White’s Contender Series. I’ve watched Jamie (Siraj) from the amateurs to where he is now. I’ve been there the whole time with all those guys — Cole Smith, Arjan Bhullar — that have been to that level.
“Everyone knows how good I am. This is my time in the sun. I have the goal set in mind now and I’m letting the path reveal itself.
“It’s a very dangerous time to be fighting a guy like me, for sure.”
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