Bryce Mitchell (left) and Jean Silva of Brazil face off during the UFC 314 press conference at Kaseya Center on April 10, 2025, in Miami. (Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC)
(Mike Roach via Getty Images)
You ever try to explain the weird and occasionally wonderful world of MMA to people who have no knowledge or experience of fight sports? Ever hear yourself talking about it and realize how bizarre it sounds?
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For instance, imagine trying to tell them what’s going on with Bryce Mitchell and Jean Silva at UFC 314 on Saturday.
Picture yourself explaining that this fight is getting more attention than it otherwise would because one guy professed an affection and admiration for Adolf Hitler, and the other guy has vowed to beat him up for being stupid. Just envision that. How you’d have to explain that Mitchell, who’s not totally sold on ideas like gravity and looks at a globe as a personal affront, is pretty sure he’s been tortured in his sleep by demons and sexy ladies ever since taking this fight with Silva.
How you’d then have to follow up by pointing out that Silva has leaned into all this, mocking Mitchell at every turn in an effort to make the most out of a fight with the man whom UFC CEO Dana White called “literally one of the dumbest human beings.”
Probably you would have to pause there, wouldn’t you? You’d have to specify that, yes, UFC executives are well aware of everything happening here — the Hitler apologia, the sleep demons, the flat-earth stuff — and have tried to spin that straw into gold by presenting it as an opportunity rather than a controversy.
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That’s the sales pitch in a nutshell. Don’t like Mitchell, who said he wanted to go fishing with Hitler and then tried to shield himself from boos by quoting the Bible? Here’s your chance to watch him get his butt kicked on live television. Maybe.
And the thing is, it works. This is a fight between one guy barely hanging onto the edge of the top-15 rankings and another guy still trying to break into them. In most other circumstances, this would be just another fight. Nobody here is, at the moment, a contender or a former champ or anything even close.
But it’s one of the marquee main-card fights on an $80 UFC pay-per-view because there are stakes. They may be mostly personal and deeply weird — among the things Mitchell and Silva have publicly argued over is which one of them better understands the teachings of Jesus Christ — but those stakes exist and we are aware of them. We know that, while nobody ever wants to lose a televised cage fight, these two really, really don’t want to lose to each other. For at least one of them, his already tenuous grip on reality might be on the line here.
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That one, in case you can’t guess, is Mitchell. He has always lived in his own special world, one where absolutely anything might be true as long as it is not supported by any scientific research. But something about this particular fight at this particular time seems to have put him on even shakier psychological ground. He seems to genuinely believe he is fighting not just Silva, but the forces of Satan. When he said he started fighting actual demons in his dreams after taking this fight, that did not appear to be a euphemism. If Mitchell were to lose this fight (BetMGM has him as a +185 underdog), where would he go from there?
Jean Silva needed two attempts, but finally made weight Friday morning for his featherweight clash. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)
(Jeff Bottari via Getty Images)
As for Silva, he seems to be in it more for the bit. He senses opportunity. Mitchell is a known name in this sport, and also a person whose pain and suffering might bring joy to others right now — including UFC executives. If Silva can cash in on that moment while notching his fifth straight UFC win, he’ll officially be a somebody in MMA by Sunday morning.
Again, it’s a lot to explain over chicken wings at the UFC 314 watch party. But just because it’s ridiculous and strange doesn’t mean it’s not real. We watch these fights for the action and the intensity, sure. But we care because of the people and the stories.
Sometimes the stakes are classic and easily understood (one guy owns a big gold belt, and the other guy wants to take it from him). Other times they are absurd and surreal (one guy thinks Hitler got a bad rap and believes he’s fighting the devil, and the other wants to become our hero by shutting that guy up). But all the fight promoter has to do is find some reason to get us to care enough to watch. And no one ever said the reason had to be good or normal, or even remotely sane.
