UFC on FOX 22’s Luis Henrique da Silva not in a rush to move up rankings, but not planning time off

Before he ever fought in the UFC, light heavyweight Luis Henrique da Silva watched other fighters do well on the Brazilian regional scene, only to crumble when they fought in the octagon.

When he finally got his shot, Silva (12-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) figured out quick why that was. He was terrified.

“When I joined the UFC, I felt anxious in a way that I hadn’t felt in years,” he told MMAjunkie in advance of his meeting Saturday with Paul Craig (8-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) at UFC on FOX 22. “I used to get cold sweats.”

Silva calls it good luck that reaction didn’t correlate to poor showings. He remains undefeated after 12 fights and two trips to the octagon. The worst is behind him, and still there is a very long way to go.

Maybe that’s one reason why Brazilian wants to get as much of it out of the way as fast as possible. He claims to be in no particular hurry, and yet he’s in a big one to meet a marquee name. He already is setting quite a tempo with four fights this year.

So far, Silva has faced fighters who, like him, are trying to break out of the pack. You can only do that for so long before someone catches a break on your misfortune.

“I want to fight as soon as possible,” Silva said. “I hope that I have a new fight contract by February, at the latest. As far as getting name opponents, I think that with a third victory, I should get booked against someone who’s well ranked. They’ll want to test me. And I plan to live up to the challenge.”

Like him, Craig is undefeated in his professional career. The Scottish fighter hasn’t faced anyone of note, however, and so it’s up in the air whether he’ll be able to perform under the bright lights, or wither like so many before him.

The two meet on the FS1-televised prelims of Saturday’s event at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Calif.

If there was anything Silva learned from those early white-knuckle encounters, it was to not read too much into what he thought his opponent might do, because that could change at any moment.

“Jonathan Wilson didn’t fight the way I’d seen before,” he said of his debut appearance at UFC 199. “And Joachim Christensen chose to strike, when I expected him to go to the mat. Both were difficult victories. They were the two toughest opponents of my career. But I still won.

“I try not to visualize my fights because things change very fast. Sometimes a striker goes for submissions, and sometimes a submission ace decides to strike. I’m ready for anything. I will try to keep it on the feet, where I’m most comfortable, but I’m ready to submit him on the ground too.”

Even though those old jitters pay a visit every time he steps back into the octagon, Silva said they’re slowly getting better. Hopefully, translates into even better showings in the octagon. It’s rarely a simple process getting rid of fear, though. Fighting in a cage before millions of people is, of course, a scary thing.

Thankfully for Silva, it won’t really matter if he conquers those jitters as long as he keeps winning. A win streak is bound to put a contract at his doorstep.

“I think it will happen naturally when the organization sees my evolution,” he said.

For more on UFC on FOX 22, check out the UFC Rumors section of MMAjunkie.