The former UFC light heavyweight champion’s opponent is Thiago Silva, whom Shogun trained with in the past at Chute Boxe and bonded. However, Shogun’s manager Julio Heller, who started working at MMA business with Wanderlei Silva and Shogun almost 10 years ago highlighted the professional side.
“They trained together at Chute Boxe, but it was a long time ago. Nobody likes to fight a countryman, but they are UFC employees and professionals. There’s no room left for amateurism, now MMA is very professionalâ€, explains Heller, who guaranteed Shogun to be focused and excited about this match-up.
“Shogun is excited, focused. It’s a good match-up for him. It’s going to be a good Shogun fight for the fans. We hope him to win this and get another chance at the title this year†tells his manager, who revealed that Shogun’s first offer was to fight Quinton “Rampage†Jackson.
“We went to Las Vegas and came back home with Rampage’s fight scheduled for July 7th, but then Rampage got injured. Shogun wanted to fight in Brazil and we talked to UFC guys and it would be a good co-main event for Brazil’s card, but since they took a long time to set the place we got this Canada fight, where Shogun has millions of fans tooâ€, concluded Heller.
