Don’t count on Olympic gold medalist Rafaela Silva to comply with the footsteps of fellow judokas Ronda Rousey and Kayla Harrison to MMA.
A two-time judo world champion (2013 and 2022) and one-time Olympic champion (2016), Silva flirted with combined martial arts throughout her two-year suspension for fenoterol, a substance used to deal with bronchial asthma. Silva claimed innocence however was compelled to steer clear of judo for 2 years between 2019 and 2021. In MMA, she discovered a solution to keep energetic.
“MMA shouldn’t be for me,” Silva stated with amusing on MMA Combating’s Portuguese-language podcast Trocação Franca. “I can’t. It doesn’t work for me. I received kicked within the face, kicked on the leg, and couldn’t put my foot on the bottom for 3 or 4 days. It’s very robust.”
Silva is shut pals with former UFC champion Jose Aldo and Nova União fighters Leonardo Santos, Matheus Nicolau, and Luana Pinheiro. She stated that being within the health club to work with MMA athletes has solely made her admire fighters extra.
“It was a really distinctive expertise for me as a result of it’s a complete totally different combat,” Silva stated. “I’ve a judo background which is completely totally different for MMA, so it messed with my head rather a lot. I needed to adapt a variety of issues. It was a really troublesome however superb expertise for me, as a result of it got here at a second I couldn’t prepare judo, so I gave myself the posh and privilege of coaching one other sport.”
The largest lesson Silva discovered throughout that time period was that, at the same time as an Olympic champion, she nonetheless had lots to find out about fight sports activities.
“I consider it helped me lots as a result of I used to be at all times asking for assist, recommendation, [and it helped] me in my return to judo,” stated Silva, who won her second world title in her first tournament back from suspension. “I’ve skilled in a number of spots and would at all times attempt to be taught one thing right here, one thing in wrestling, within the grappling space. I at all times had difficulties on the bottom.
“On the similar time, there I used to be making an attempt MMA, bringing all I may to judo. Even after so a few years coaching judo, this era coaching MMA helped me lots, it made my spirit stronger as an athlete.”
Silva has at all times admired the likes of Anderson Silva and Aldo, and watched the UFC stars compete stay again when the game grew to become a sensation in Brazil within the early 2010s. However she grew to become a much bigger fan after watching and experiencing what they undergo in camp.
The listing of MMA stars embrace judo phenoms Ronda Rousey and Kayla Harrison, who made the transition to MMA to develop into superstars and win titles in UFC and PFL, respectively.
“I already admired them from the skin,” Silva stated, “and realizing what they went by way of to make such transition — even Kayla, a two-time Olympic champion and world champion, making that transition one of the simplest ways attainable. You simply can’t not admire athletes like her.”
