Neil Magny: I See Loopholes I Can Expose In Erick Silva
Neil Magny looked to be on the verge of being a true contender in the UFC’s 170-pound division when he won seven-straight fights in 2014, but his streak was recently derailed when he was submitted by grappling guru Demian Maia at August 1’s UFC 190.
However, Magny will look to make a quick turnaround and get back on track as he will take on Erick Silva in the co-main event of tomorrow night’s (August 23, 2015) UFC Fight Night 74. Silva was supposed to take on Rick Story, but Story was forced out of the bout due to injury. The UFC then called Magny, who, along with his coach, decided that it was a no brainer to take the fight:
“I literally walked out of my gym and saw a missed call from Joe Silva, so I called him back,” Magny told MMAjunkie about how he accepted the bout after being informed of an injury to Silva’s original opponent, Rick Story (18-8 MMA, 11-6 UFC). “I looked over at my coach, and he’s like, ‘Dude, let’s do it. You’re in shape. You’re ready. It’s a matchup we’ve talked about in the past, so why not go forward and do it.’”
Silva is a vicious fighter, and a fighter who’s riding a two-fight win streak that includes two submission victories, but Magny feels as if he can expose Silva:
“I definitely see loopholes that I can beat him at and I’m going to try to expose those on Sunday night,” Magny said.
Continuing on, Magny said that it was a blessing that the call came so soon after his last fight. It also seems as if the loss may have been beneficial to his career, as Magny stated that he and his coach have discussed what went wrong, and what adjustments need to be made:
“Every day I wake up, I’m able to go into the gym and train,” he said. “The opportunity is a blessing. I’ve got to take advantage of those blessings, and I’m just super fortunate happy about it. The fact that this call same so soon after my last fight, I was just super grateful for it and excited to get it on.
“There was things that I was doing fight after fight that I was getting away with against a level of competition. But against Maia, I wasn’t able to get away with those same things. So it kind of forced me to settle and talk to my coach and ask what I did wrong, and brainstorm and pick through what I did and try to improve on it for the next fight.”
Although he competed only a few weeks back, Magny said that if he’s healthy then he would like to take full advantage of any opportunities presented to him:
“If I’m healthy and the opportunity is there, I want to take full advantage of all of them,” he said.
Will Magny get back to his winning ways?
