Joaquim Silva wonders why he hasn’t been ‘noticed’ by the UFC yet

Joaquim Silva is finally returning to action, but he can’t explain why he hasn’t fought in a while.

“Netto BJJ” entered the Octagon for the last time in May, when he extended his winning streak to three with a decision victory over Reza Madadi in Stockholm. Eight months later, Silva meets Vinc Pichel in the preliminary portion of UFC Charlotte on Saturday night.

Silva has campaigned for fights with veterans Clay Guida and Diego Sanchez in 2017, but the company didn’t seem too interested about it.

All Silva wanted to do was fight. He even volunteered to take short-notice fights at welterweight, he says, and that’s why he kept training relatively hard despite not having a fight booked.

”Being ready to fight all the time causes some stress because you’re on a diet, training hard all the time, and nothing comes,” Silva told MMA Fighting, “but that ended up helping me because I prepared for months for this fight. When they gave me the date and opponent, it wasn’t a problem anymore.”

After fighting only once a year since competing on The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil 4 in 2015, going 3-0 inside the Octagon with wins over Nazareno Malegarie, Andrew Holbrook and Madadi, Silva wants to fight “at least three or four times” in 2018.

If “Netto BJJ” manages to end 2018 with a 6-0 or 7-0 record inside the Octagon, he hopes to be treated as a rising prospect in the lightweight division.

”I don’t know why they haven’t noticed me yet,” Silva said, “but after this fight on Saturday, I’m sure they will see me with different eyes and will give me bigger fights.”

Pichel is also a former TUF contestant riding a three-fight winning streak under the UFC banner, but is nowhere near as big of a name as Sanchez or Guida, the ones Silva targeted over the past few months.

”They are exciting. Any time they fight, fans want to watch it,” Silva said of Guida and Sanchez. “MMA fans love these guys, so they are always in big fights. They are not ranked right now, but a fight against them is even bigger than against a top 10. But I’m an employee, and I have no choice. I won’t question that. After this fight, it will all happen to me. This is my fourth fight in the UFC and will be my fourth win.

”Vinc is a well-rounded MMA fighter. He was comfortable in the striking area in his last fight, and if he does that against me it will favor my striking game. I have 15 minutes to land a hand on him. If I hit him with one hand, he goes down.”