This is the live blog for Jean Silva vs. Jose Miguel Delgado, the featherweight main event for Saturday’s Noche UFC card at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona.
Joining the UFC from Contender Series in 2024, Silva entered the promotion with a lot of hype and immediately showed why, scoring five finishes in his first five fights in the promotion and taking home three Performance bonuses for his troubles. Heading into last year’s Noche UFC main event against Diego Lopes, “Lord” appeared to be on the cusp of a featherweight title shot, but a TKO loss to Lopes upended those plans. Silva rebounded with a win over Arnold Allen in January, and now the Fighting Nerds contender hopes to get some redemption in his second Noche attempt.
Silva was originally supposed to fight former interim featherweight champion Yair Rodriguez this Saturday, but after Rodriguez withdrew from the event, Arizona native Delgado stepped in on short notice to fill the void. Also a product of Contender Series, Delgado has gone 4-1 in the UFC over the past two years and now hopes to score the biggest win of his career.
Check out the Silva vs. Delgado live blog below.
Been a pretty good night of fights so far. Really fun stuff for the most part. And now the main event, which I cannot imagine will be boring.
Delgado out to a mariachi song, and he looks so happy and comfortable, smiling ear to ear.
I have no idea what Silva is walking out to. Honestly, kinda sounds like Hispanic Christian rock, and he’s walking in a way that makes me think it is. Very spiritually happy, if that makes sense. And he really is taking a long time to get into the cage. Also, he looked on the verge of tears at one point.
Silva is an odd duck, man.
Delgado is 4 inches taller and has a 4-inch reach advantage. But he’s a +325 dog to Silva, who is -425.
Buffer gets things going. Dan Miragliotta is the ref. Delgado paces back and forth; Silva stands stone still, staring at him. Delgado gets a big cheer as he’s announced. Silva gets the boos. I guess his “I’m Mexican in my heart” thing didn’t resonate with the fans.
They meet in the middle for final instructions, touch gloves, and it’s go time.
Delgado is clearly the bigger man in there, as the numbers show. Both men are out in orthodox, but both switch stances a lot. Silva holding the center, Delgado moving around outside. Both men feeling things out early. Delgado probing with very light attacks, Silva doing nothing. The first minute goes by like this with Delgado feinting and tapping. Silva has not moved his hands at all.
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