Picked up by the UFC after just five wins, then swiftly dropped after back-to-back defeats, getting back to ‘where he belongs’ was the only thing driving Jay Silva. the 'Spider killer'. In this Q&A he talks frankly about the ups and downs of his career.
Q: Can you remember when you got the call to fight in the UFC for the first time?
Jay: “Oh yeah, it was a Sunday morning. I went out to a club in New York the night before and I came back to the hotel and was in bed. Then early in the morning I got a call from my manager and he said, ‘You said you would sign with me if I get you a big deal with a big organization.’ And I said, ‘Yes but you ain’t going to get me with anybody big.’
And he said, ‘Well get ready to sign ‘cos I just got you a deal to fight in the UFC.’ I remember it like it was yesterday. My first reaction was to ask, ‘Who am I fighting?’ But even if he’d said Brock Lesnar I would have taken the fight. It’s the UFC, man. I was down and I took the fight at one week’s notice.”
Q: That first fight was against CB Dolloway, but the Chris Leben fight after that was probably the biggest of your career, right?
“That was a fight I will never forget my whole life. That was the biggest of my career. That Leben fight hurt so much, I never slept for a week afterwards.”
Q: How did getting released by the UFC affect you?
“It was so sad, I was so upset. Everybody works so hard to get to the UFC and when they turn around and say you can no longer fight, it hits hard. You don’t want to believe it, ‘cos you still wanna be there. But there is nothing you can do about it.
I remember speaking to Joe Silva at the airport, begging him for one more chance. But he told me, ‘Listen, you’re a good fighter and I respect you and everything, but if you want to fight only stand-up then you need to go to boxing or K-1. To fight in MMA and the UFC you have to be well-rounded.’ He told me to fight in other organizations and get better. I was really disappointed, but it was great advice and at that moment I changed everything about my fighting life. I changed my fight camps, who I trained with and everything. That conversation helped me a lot.”
Q: How have those changes affected you as a fighter
“I’ve surrounded myself now with really, really good people. Mark Munoz, Krzysztof Soszynski, these are amazing people and I feel like when I was on top, when I was in the UFC after just one year as a fighter, I became a little cocky. I was a little s**t. And when you are on top there is only one way to go – the bottom. And that’s what happened to me.
“I had to grow as a person and as a fighter and that’s what I have done. Now I’m climbing back up and it’s thanks to those guys. I’m a better person and a better fighter.”
Q: Since then you've submitted another former UFC star, Kendall Grove, a real durable guy who had never been tapped out before. What does that result mean to you?
“Every fight I have is the biggest fight of my career, that’s normal in MMA. And the Kendall fight was great for me as I know what he brings to the table. We knew everybody from one another’s camps, and I really respected the guy a lot. My coaches at Reign, Mark and Krzysztof, gave me a lot of advice for that fight, and I was in great shape. Thank God I came out on top.”
Q: Your career has been a real rollercoaster ride. Any advice for guys just starting out?
“Management is a big thing. If I would have had the right management at times then I wouldn’t have been allowed to take fights at short notice. Only one of my losses, the defeat to Leben, wasn’t at short notice. Every other defeat I took without a full training camp for that fight. And the Chris Leben fight, I over-trained, I had no camp or coaches. I trained myself. I didn’t know anybody back then, so I over-trained as I looked up to him so much. Getting the right people around you is very important.”
Q: Finally, what does the future hold for you?
“Getting back to the top, getting back to where I belong, for sure. I’m in no big rush to get back in there, I’ve learned to stay patient, and I also accept that I have a lot of things to prove to myself and my coaches. But I want to keep improving, keep moving forward one step at a time. And god willing, I will be back there. I just want to be the best fighter I can be.”
Postscript: Jay is still fighting, with two wins in 2018 and has a 12-12 win-loss record. But he's never made it back to UFC.
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