Bigfoot Silva: “I won’t let Overeem rest for even a second”

By Guilherme Cruz
from TATAME





Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva was just playing a supporting role on Strikeforce’s heavyweight GP, but after defeating Fedor Emelianenko on its quarterfinals, he’ll decide with Alistair Overeem who’ll have a vacancy on its finale.



On an exclusive interview given to TATAME, which you can read by clicking here, Bigfoot analyzed the bout against Overeem, but revealed he wished to dispute the tournament’s finale against Josh Barnett, who’ll face Sergei Kharitonov on the other semifinal bout.



“I’d really like that, defeating Overeem, do the finale against him because it’s a personal issue that we got to go through”, said Bigfoot. “I’ll never bring my feelings into the ring, because then you ruin all your game plan. But, I’ll set a good game plan and we’ll solve this personal issue, just me and him. But I’m not thinking about Josh right now”.



Check below the exclusive interview with Bigfoot, who also comment on Fabricio Werdum’s performance against Alistair Overeem and asked the fans to pray for Vitor Miranda’s son, who’s on a hospital on the United States.



What are your thoughts about the fight between Overeem and Werdum, which defined your next opponent?



I was hoping more of this fight. Due to the fact I know Overeem, I know he’s an aggressive guy, I know he respected Werdum a lot, even because you have to after all he’s done. He didn’t want to fight on the ground against Werdum, and I guess everybody was hoping for a submission of knockout, but unfortunately neither of these things happened. He’s a Brazilian, a friend of mine and a good guy… But, unfortunately, it happened. Someone wins and someone loses, but life goes on.



Were you surprised by Werdum’s posture, of trying to pull Overeem to his guard all the time?



Man, on the first round, I’ll tell you he did the right thing. I have told him before that Overeem would get a little tired on the second and third rounds. On the first minutes of the fight, you can really go for it against him because he’s much dangerous, he has his full power, he’s strong, he’s muscle… But, on the second and third round, he’d slow it down. It was what we all saw. On some moments Werdum went for it and could’ve gotten the knockout, but Werdum was also tired. He didn’t stay on the top, he didn’t used his ground game at any moment, he didn’t do the clinch work, so… I guess that if Werdum had pushed it a little harder he would have got the win.



Do you believe this bout showed a weak point of Overeem, who was exhausted when the bout was over?



All fighters have weak and strong points, not only him. Every single one of us. We’re human beings. And I’ll tell you something: he showed me the way. I’ll get ready to do a good fight. Now I have to train just like I did for Fedor, or more. Because in case I train less than that, I won’t feel confident. The difference is that I won’t let Overeem rest for even a second, I’ll impose my game. Of couse I’ll respect him, since he’s extremely dangerous. I won’t make any mistake because, if you do so, he’ll knock you out. He’s a striker. But I’ll not worry about him. I’ll worry about me, with my trainings, my game polan and, with God’s blessing, everything will work out just fine.



Everybody pointed out Overeem as the one with the best striking Power on the heavyweight division, especially since he won K-1. Do you think he showed a not so good striking game this time, since he wasn’t able to impose his game over Werdum?



As I said before, if Werdum had pushed it a little harder, he fit a good knee and some punches which brought Overeem dizzy and he stepped back… If he had kept on moving forwards, he could’ve knock him out. If he tried to get his legs, he could have taken him down and imposed his ground game, because Werdum is a legend on the ground game. But, unfortunately, he injured his knee, he was limping all the way back to the hotel. It’s already complicated to strike with Overeem, especially when you have an injured knee. It’s even more complicated. We can’t take the credits of Overeem, but fighting while injured is pretty hard.



I’ll do my job, set a great camp for this bout and I’ll go for the win. I had told you before I fought Fedor that people were like: ‘Fedor, Fedor…’ And I used to say: ‘guys, I’d like to tell you I’m not sitting at home eating pizza and drinking Coke and watching movies. I was training a lot and he’s not a superman, he’s a human being like any other’. I love entering the octagon as the underdog, I like being booed at, it only motivates me and gives me the strength to go there and prove that I’m not fighting MMA just to be another number and put some money in my pocket. I’m there to fight and make some space for myself, and be among the best.



What are your thoughts about the other quarterfinals, between Josh Barnett and Brett Rogers? What do you hope of this semifinals between Barnett and Kharitonov?



Man, the bout between Josh and Brett Rogers I practically predicted what would happen. I have talked to Brett, I have told him and his coach: ‘stay alert to your legs, he won’t like to strike with you, he won’t like to do the stand-up game with you and he’ll try to take you down with his good Wrestling’. And it’s what I would do if I was fighting him: I’d try to take him down and finish the fight. Credits to Josh, he could do it, he took him down pretty well. He’s a complete fighter, as I told you before. He’s good while striking, he has good Wrestling, he has a good ground game. He’s a complete fighter.



Now, on this tournament, I guess he’s the most complete athlete. This bout against Kharitonov will be another tough one, he won’t take him down that easily. Kharitonov, besides having heavy hands just like Brett, has a better posture while standing up, and is a better boxer. But I’ll cheer for him, because I’d really like that, defeating Overeem, do the finale against him because it’s a personal issue that we got to go through.



I’ll never bring my feelings into the ring, because then you ruin all your game plan. But, I’ll set a good game plan and we’ll solve this personal issue, just me and him. But I’m not thinking about Josh right now. I’m focused in Overeem. I’ve been training for a month now, thinking about Werdum and Overeem. In May I started to train and I spent three days a week training for fighting Werdum, and two days training in case I’d fight Overeem. I’ve started doing that in May, so it’s five months of preparation. Now I’m focused on Overeem, on defeating him.



I’ve said before that, in case I defeated Fedor, I’d win this tournament, because I’ve saw this bout against Fedor as a finale of the tournament to me. It was the toughest fight of the tournament, he was the most dangerous person in there, he was pointed out by everyone as the one to become its champion, and I fought him on my first bout on the tournament. That has given me extra motivation to train, to conquest this title. Now, if you want to beat me up, you’ll have to submit me or knock me out because I really want to win this tournament.



Did Strikeforce tell you anything about when you’ll fight next?



See, they’ve told me the month, which will be October. But they haven’t mentioned the place of the date. I guess they’ll tell me that soon. But, at least, I know it’ll happen in October and I’ll have a good time to train.



Do you want to leave a message?



I’d like to ask all fans that pray a lot, independent of what you believe in or who you are, if you believe in God or no. but pray for the son of our friend, the fighter Vitor Miranda, who’s going through a really bad situation (after drowning on a swimming pool on the United States). Let’s pray that he gets better and can bring many joys for his family, Vitor and Paula Miranda, a beautiful couple.