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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Last month at UFC 153, Erick Silva saw his movement up the welterweight ladder brought to a halt by Jon Fitch, who beat him up in the second and third rounds of their fight to hand him his first true UFC loss.
Silva was worn down as the fight went on, a result of Fitch's relentless and grinding attack, no doubt, but he was also hindered by a larger weight cut than he was used to, as he explained to Fighter's Only that he had to drop nearly 15 lbs. the day before weigh-ins.
"I won’t permit it to happen again," he said. "I will be attentive to the weight, I will work it well. I won’t have much on me by the end of the year. In the last fight, I thought that it would be better to get heavier in the final stages of training but afterwards I realized that it ended up making me more slow and tired. Now this is going to be a whole new ball game."
Penick's Analysis: The overly aggressive weight cut certainly didn't help him deal with Fitch, but the relentless offense Fitch hit him with would have drained most anybody. Still, it's an important lesson to learn for a young fighter, and he seems to understand that's not the type of cut that will have him at his best come fight day. So if that improves him on the whole moving forward, it's a good thing.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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