Bryce Mitchell thinks his upcoming UFC 314 opponent, Jean Silva has sent demons after him to haunt his dreams and lead ‘Thug Nasty’ into sin. This is something the Arkansas native believes in as prevalent by his social media rants and interviews about the same. Moreover, the verbose 145fer is best known for his insightful gems like “Hitler was a good guy”, “the earth is flat”, and “gravity doesn’t exist.”
And the American is set to face Brazilian knockout artist Silva on the main card of the April 12 clash in a classic striker vs. grappler matchup. But make no mistake, the ‘Fighting Nerds’ export is as intense as they come. With concussive finishing power, the Brazilian is slowly rising to be a dangerous problem at featherweight. As you can tell from the ‘Thug Nasty’s aforementioned accusations, the two men do not like each other. All of which makes for a fantastic, electrifying matchup. This is why in this article we break down their stylistic matchup and make our predictions for the fight.
UFC 314: Bryce Mitchell vs. Jean Silva stats
Bryce Mitchell is not much of a striker, but his grappling is top-notch. On the other hand, Jean Silva is a fantastic and extremely dangerous striker, probably the best (except for Ilia Topuria) that Mitchell has ever faced. The Brazilian lands an impressive 5.26 shots on his opponents per minute on average, while ‘Thug Nasty’ manages less than half that at 2.31 significant strikes.
But there is a trade-off for Silva’s high-volume striking. While both men successfully defend around 60% of strikes thrown at them, the Brazilian eats 4.14 significant strikes per minute compared to Mitchell, who gets caught with just 1.53 strikes on average. It is important to remember, however, that the 5.26 shot/minute Silva is the most active striker Mitchell has ever faced (even Ilia Topuria, whom the American faced in 2022, lands only 4.69 shots per minute on average).
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It is also worth remembering the recent form of both men. Silva is undefeated in his four UFC fights so far, all of which he has won via KO/TKO. In fact, Silva is on a twelve-fight win streak, while Mitchell has lost two of his last four fights. To be fair to Mitchell, his losses came at the hands of Ilia Topuria, and a highlight-reel knockout to #8 featherweight Josh Emmett, both of whom are much better than the competition Silva has faced so far. This brings us to our prediction for Mitchell-Silva.
Mitchell vs. Silva UFC 314 breakdown and prediction
As you well know by this point, Mitchell vs. Silva will come down to who can impose their game plan on the other guy, as striker vs. grappler matchups usually do. If Mitchell could take down ‘Lord’ early and often, he has a good chance of winning the fight. And this can happen either at the end of their sanctioned three rounds or via a stoppage.
But, the thing is that Silva has a remarkably well-rounded game. His Fighting Nerds team, which won the 2024 World MMA Award for Gym of the Year, of course, is well known for coming up with excellent game plans tailored to each opponent, and that is definitely going to be the case for Silva’s clash against ‘Thug Nasty’.
Perhaps the most important thing for Silva in the Mitchell fight would be to prevent being taken down, at which ‘Lord’ is already pretty good. The Brazilian striker has an 80% takedown defense rate in the UFC, which we think is the most important stat for the fight. We feel Silva and his team would have definitely worked extremely hard to shore up ‘Lord’s takedown defense.
We see the fight remaining on the feet for the most part, with Silva’s destructive striking being enough to stop ‘Thug Nasty’ before the final bell. What are your predictions for the Jean Silva vs. Bryce Mitchell clash?
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