World’s top flyweight signs with Tachi Palace Fights

Posted on | August 19, 2010 | No Comments

Lemoore, Calif. – The word’s top rated 125-pound mixed martial artist will make his United States debut for Tachi Palace Fights in December.

Tachi Palace Fights signed Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil’s Jussier “Formiga” da Silva on Thursday to a 4-fight exclusive agreement. Da Silva, who is widely recognized as the world’s best at 125 pounds, will debut at Tachi Palace Fight’s 7 on December 2.

“We are extremely excited to have inked a deal with ‘Formiga’. This is something that I’ve really been working at since early this year,” said Tachi Palace Fights Entertainment Coordinator Jeremy Luchau. “We have worked really hard at developing some of the top talent at 125 pounds nationally and now we are able to expand international with this signing.”

Tachi Palace Fight’s current 125-pound champion Ulysses Gomez (6-1) of Las Vegas, Nev. recently signed to compete in the 135-pound Bellator Tournament. The Palace has also featured other big name flyweights in other promotions such as Rambaa Somdet, Pat Runez and Alexis Vila.

“I feel really well, it’s a dream come true to me. I hope to make my name known in the US,” said da Silva through the translation of his manager Matheus Aquino. “It’s a great opportunity to me. We had already tried to reach an agreement before, but unfortunately I couldn’t get the visa, I hope this time everything goes well.

“My friend said that this will be the most difficult fight of my life, and hopes I can submit the US consulate,” da Silva added with a laugh.

Certainly da Silva (7-0) is the cream of the crop of recent Tachi Palace Fights signings. On June 12 da Silva defeated Alexandre Pantoja by unanimous decision at Shooto Brazil. The victory over Pantoja (7-2) was the first since the Nova Uniao Kimura product dethroned long-time flyweight king Schinichi “BJ” Kojima (10-4-5) of Japan by decision.

“To bring in a fighter of Jussier’s caliber is really a credit to the Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino and the Tachi Yokut Tribe,” Luchau said. “We’ve been dedicated to the 125-pound division for some time now and we want to continue to bring some of the world’s best athletes to Tachi.”

The flyweight division is starting to take off on North American soil and da Silva’s coming to American should go a long way in creating some of the more meaningful fights at that weight.

“I’m a jiu jitsu guy, I trained jiu jitsu all my life, and recently I was CBJJE world champion at Black Belt, but I’m always trying to improve, and I’ve been training a lot of boxing, muay thai and wrestling. You can expect a much improved fighter in my US debut,” da Silva said.

The search for an opponent has begun for da Silva, who only wants to come to the US to fight the very best and says there is no pressure on being the No. 1 fighter in the world at 125 pounds.

“It might be incredible to hear, but no (there’s no pressure being No. 1 in the world). Because being the No. 1 fighter in the world, everybody wants to fight against the best and this is good because I really love fighting and people in the fighting world get to know me,” da Silva added.