Jean Silva may not be Mexican, but he’s planning to celebrate Mexican Independence Day in style.
On Saturday, Silva takes on Jose Miguel Delgado in the main event of the fourth installment of Noche UFC, the promotion’s annual celebration of Mexican Independence Day. But while Silva hails from Brazil and Delgado is the fighter with Mexican heritage, at the ceremonial weigh-ins on Friday, Silva donned sugar skull face paint, barked at Delgado, and claimed to be the fighter truly representing Mexico on Saturday.
“Let me tell you something, Jose Delgado was not born in Mexico; he’s not Mexican,” Delgado said through a translator. “But I represent you, and you live in my heart. I’ll represent you well tomorrow.”
The co-main event on Saturday is a flyweight fight between former champion Brandon Moreno and rising contender Joseph Morales, who shared a significantly less eventful final faceoff.
Also of note, the feature bout of the evening features Tommy McMillen and Marwan Rahiki locking horns in a featherweight contest, and as expected, the two nearly came to blows during their final faceoff.
Both McMillen and Rahiki have talked a lot of trash at each other over fight week, and as soon as they faced off for the final time, the talk started up again, with McMillen quickly shoving and then attempting to slap Rahiki, causing security to intervene. As security was dragging McMillen away, he threw something at his foe before walking off and pumping up the crowd.
Noche UFC takes place at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, this Saturday, with the early prelims kicking off at 2 p.m. ET and the main card starting at 5 p.m. ET.
