For Jean Silva, it has been a rollercoaster ride ever since he debuted on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2023. The 28-year-old featherweight is growing in prominence with every fight as he remains undefeated in the UFC. He’s certainly riding high with momentum ahead of his fight against Bryce Mitchell, with whom he’s had a pretty interesting rivalry thus far, this Saturday at UFC 314.

‘Lord’ already has a 12-fight winning streak that includes 4 UFC victories, and 80 percent of his wins have come via finishes. He’s a remarkable fighter on the rise. But the people behind his expertise in fighting have also made their mark in MMA as well. He is a member of one of the fastest-growing MMA teams today and has a unique take on fighting combined with intelligence. So, let’s take a deep dive into Silva’s training background, starting with his coach. 

Who is Jean Silva’s coach?

Silva’s Brazilian origins assured that he was pretty good in the art form of jiu-jitsu and capoeira. Caio Borralho, who is the torchbearer of his team—The Fighting Nerds, and their philosophy—coaches the featherweight juggernaut. His head coaches include Flavio Alvaro, who’s literally called ‘The Legendary’, fought in more than half a century of professional fights. Then there’s Pablo Sucupira, who’s a co-founder of the team as well.

While both Flavio Alvaro and Pablo Sucupira are two of the head coaches, they have one coach who takes care of the jiu-jitsu training for their fighters, Wagner Mota. Interestingly, Mota was also the coach of former UFC fighter Damien Maia. However, the Fight Nerd’s grappling coach never got into the world of MMA, but collected many accolades in the jiu-jitsu world.

So, who are The Fight Nerds? Let’s wind back the clock a little bit and take a look at the story behind the phenomenal team’s name.

Why are they called ‘The Fighting Nerds’?

Caio Borralho, a math and chemistry whiz who realized his grappling skills were excellent, realized that his striking needed a little more polish. Since he was a math‘nerd’, problem-solving was the way to go rather than procrastinating. He sought out an expert, Pablo Sucupira, a Muay Thai specialist who had traded his 9-to-5 copywriting job for boxing gloves. But why? Well, some of his peers didn’t seem to favor his ideas too much. He and Borralho would then go on to create The Fighting Nerds team, as we’ve mentioned already, and now there is a team for the geeks and nerds of MMA who can throw punches while naming all the 206 bones in your body.

The team has a signature look of black-rimmed glasses that Jean Silva wears as well. Borralho started the trend by wearing these glasses with thick frames and putting tape on his nose bridge during media appearances. Seeing him, his teammates adopted the same style. As per MMA Junkie, Sucupira said, “The Fighting Nerds are the most intelligent guys in the world because they think when they are throwing kicks, throwing punches inside the cage.”

Here, the fighters think of fighting as a problem needing to be solved, just like math. So, what is their motto? Fight smart, not tough. Sounds about right. Now, let’s debate a little bit and get to know Jean Silva’s teammates and the fighters on The Fighting Nerds team.

Who are Jean Silva’s teammates?

Jean Silva always credits The Fighting Nerds as a crucial part of his MMA career. After all, he’s got some seriously skilled warriors as teammates, including Carlos Prates, Denis Silva, Caio Borralho, Bruna Brasil, Mauricio Ruffy, Natalia Alves, and many more fighters. While some of them are in the UFC, others are making waves in other promotions. Silva credited the team for his success and said that they played an important role in his transition from Muay Thai to MMA. He also credited his wife for his success in MMA and UFC. While speaking to the UFC, he said, “Carol was the one who got me into MMA, so when we talk about the UFC, we’re talking about her.”

‘Lord’ truly loves his team, which is also visible when he gets emotional speaking about living his dream alongside the Fighting Nerds’ teammates. Wearing the Fighting Nerds jacket, he sat down for a presser before his fight against Melsik Baghdasaryan and spoke about his experience being under the UFC banner with an amazing team. After the reporter asked him about how he felt, he said with tears in his eyes: “What I feel when all of this happens is just being here at the greatest event in the world living a dream is that the dream is nothing if you don’t compare to doing it, to being here, to see everyone wearing this jacket to see everyone behind me.” 

Before that, a reporter asked him about his team, and he said, “It adds up now to what is the best team in the world. We won an award. It’s amazing to be a part of this. The journey’s been amazing. It’s pretty amazing to be a part of this.” All of Jean Silva and his teammates are riding very high on momentum. Currently, the Fighting Nerds, who’re in the UFC, except Bruna Brasil, have a combined record of 18-0 in Dana White’s promotion.

He’s certainly making noise with his performances inside the Octagon, and it will be interesting to see if he can do the same this weekend against Bryce Mitchell. Regardless, what do you think about his rise along with his team? Share your thoughts in the comments below.