As if to say that performance wasn’t satisfactory, Silva returned two weeks later to fight Drew Dober in a lightweight bout in Dober’s hometown of Denver. Over the course of 11-and-a-half exhilarating minutes, Silva showed he could not only go shot-for-shot with the division’s knockout leader, but do one better and cause enough damage to get the doctor’s stoppage.
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Determined to leave the mishaps on the scale in the past, Silva spent plenty of time working with the UFC Performance Institute to nail down the weight cut, and he returned in peak condition at UFC Fight Night: Cejudo vs Song in Seattle to open up his 2025 account. There, he faced fellow striking savant Melsik Baghdasaryan and happily dispatched him inside the first frame. Silva’s friendly antics continued to polarize, but he showed he wasn’t anything close to distracted when he followed another high-five with Baghdasaryan almost immediately with a knockdown which started the finishing sequence.
That bout set up a heated and high-leverage matchup with Bryce Mitchell. Silva took exception with a few things Mitchell said (not about Silva, just in general), and he made his dislike known in a pre-fight press conference.
