Din Thomas is high on Jean Silva. Maybe a little too high.
Two weeks removed from his second-round knockout of Charles Jourdain at UFC 303, ‘Lord Assassin’ returned to the Octagon in The Mile High City for a short-notice scrap with heavy-handed Denver native Drew Dober.
Silva’s impressive speed was on full display from the get-go, peppering Dober with his left hand before busting open his opponent with a couple of perfectly timed spinning back elbows.
Despite being in the driver’s seat from the opening bell, Dober never once took his foot off the gas. Unfortunately, Dober’s cut continued to widen as the fight went on, forcing referee Herb Dean and the cageside physician to intervene and bring a stop to the contest.
— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) July 14, 2024
Drew Dober's face after Jean Silva fight.
Dober was understandably frustrated, but the stoppage was understandable as he had sustained one of the worst cuts in recent memory. Or at least the worst one since Mayra Bueno Silva’s nasty gash two weeks prior.
With two impressive finishes in the span of two weeks, things are looking up for Jean Silva. Though he has yet to break into the featherweight top 15, former fighter turned analyst Din Thomas doesn’t care. He wants to see ‘Lord Assassin’ fight 145-pound champ Ilia Topuria right now.
“Man, I mean, Jean Silva is something else; he is absolutely nasty,” Thomas said during the UFC Denver post-show. “I was watching the fight next to Mick Maynard, the matchmaker, and I’m sitting there saying if this guy can make 145, let’s just put him in there with Ilia Topuria now. Yeah. He looks the part. His striking looks the part” (h/t MMA Mania).
Jean Silva has a long way to go
Kamaru Usman, who was also on post-fight duties in The Centennial State, quickly zapped Thomas back to reality, telling the one-time Fight of the Night winner to quit it with the title talk.
As exciting as Silva has looked over the last couple of weeks, we can’t forget that he’s still a rookie inside the Octagon, having only competed three times thus far. Not to mention he failed to make weight for his featherweight scrap with Jourdain in Las Vegas.