We start this month of October with great news for you, MMA fan and future fighter, with the arrival of Fabiano Silva to Lake Jackson. We proudly present this incredible athlete, who pile-up three Brazilian Muay Thai championship titles, four Minas Gerais State Championships titles and a longstanding career as one of best Brazilian Muay Thai coaches.
And, to give him the welcome that he deserves and the introduction that you must have, we prepared this profile with the highlights of Fabiano’s career, his thoughts about life (inside and outside the ring) and his plans for this phase as School of Jiu Jitsu’s new Muay Thai coach.
Who is the athlete and coach Fabiano Silva?
Meeting Fabiano Silva for the first time, you’ll probably notice two things right away. First, how overcoming limits is a central part of his approach to things. And secondly, his discrete and, yet, unwavering trust in a higher power to guide him through life.
Hearing Fabiano talk about his career in Muay Thai – first as athlete, then as coach -, it becomes clear that most of his life’s accomplishments were the result of his open-mind to face the challenges thrown at him, combined with the drive to surpass them, head on and without complaint. Much like Muay Thai’s very principles, if you’ve already read our last article.
His entry in the ring was no different: a coincidence born out of a challenge. Like most kids his age, Fabiano loved action movies like Van Damme’s and Bruce Lee’s, and was mildly interested in self-defense techniques. But never really considered fighting Muay Thai, “or any martial art, for that matter”, he recalls.
For most part of his teenage years, mountain-biking was his sport of choice. Quite distant from the mat, right? But things changed in 2000, when one of these life’s challenges emerged. With his mother fighting a combat of her own, against Cancer, Fabiano put the bike away and started working full time, to help at home.
“At this time, mountain-biking was an expensive sport, and very time demanding. So, I sold the bike and stayed without practicing any sport for some time”, he recalls. At this time, his brother was already fighting Muay Thai, and one day invited Fabiano (without much expectations) to watch the practice.
Love at first strike
On his first day of practice, he entered a sparring match against a more experienced teammate. And, as you’d expect, got beaten. It was love at first strike. From that moment, Fabiano started a fast progression on the mat, for his own surprise.
“Around my first month of training, the coach told me straight that fighting wasn’t for me, that I wasn’t cut for it… and should look for something else, try another sport. That sort of boosted me”. This kind of “if life gives you limes” philosophy that seems to guide Fabiano and translate into hard-work and discipline entered the scene.
“I think that challenges are really what makes us progress. Without them, we’re just passing through life, you know? So if you tell me I can’t do something, I won’t stop until proving – to myself – that you are wrong. And when the coach saw that I wasn’t going to quit, the same way he went out of his way to tell me that, he started to really push me forward in training and sparring”
And, of course, Fabiano wasn’t shy about facing the challenges. With only two months into training, he entered his first competition. And, four months later, he suffered his first defeat, against a black belt who knocked him out at the end of the third round. “That defeat stayed with me. And I spent the next six months training like crazy to challenge this guy again.”
In the end, the winner of that fight never accepted the rematch. But the time Fabiano spent with training gave him the technique to keep going forward with impressive speed. Only six years after that first day of practice, Fabiano got his black belt. And of the 26 professional fights he entered, he won 22.
That’s probably why, when asked if there’s an innate feature a fighter must possess to be successful in the ring, Fabiano is quick to answer “Perseverance. I’m living proof that ‘talent’ is only a thing that you build. That’s also why I think that the defects are often more important to your progress than the victories. Winning, raising your arm after the fight, it’s easy. But standing up and keeping moving forward after being beaten is hard. The behavior of a fighter in defeat says a lot about his future success.”
From the ring to the classes
Some years are pivotal in our lives and, for Fabiano, it was 2006. In the year that he achieved the black belt, he began teaching – in the same Muay Thai school where he was, not long ago, a student. And it was also in 2006 when he decided to turn Muay Thai into his livelihood.
“At that time, I still had a ‘conventional’ job… in which I was really unhappy. When I began teaching at the gym, my wife (my girlfriend then) encouraged and gave me the support to change careers. Since then, I’ve been working with Muay Thai, full time, in the ring and as a teacher.”
Around 2013, Fabiano and his brother started their own gym, since then building up a team of 10 black belts, almost all of them internally dedicated to Muay Thai, finding their livelihood as athletes and coaches. “The most gratifying part of teaching is seeing the life changing potential of this fight”, he points out.
To him, the work of a coach goes far beyond the mat. He believes that a good teacher and coach depends on the exemples he had with his own masters, while still a student. And on a fair amount of “feeling”, to know when to praise… and to recognise the moments when a good scolding is required.
“That goes inside the ring as much as in the student’s personal life. Those two things need to be balanced. A fighter will hardly be successful on the mat if his life outside of it lacks structure and stability”. Where an uninformed observer may perceive Muay Thai only as an aggressive modality, Fabiano sees a source of discipline. To him, the practice and the small rituals of the ring provide teachings that will serve the student outside the mat.
“Even the small courtesy of saluting the coach and the teammates when entering the mat is part of this process. Sure, in Muay Thai practice you’ll harden your shins and fists. But, even more importante, you learn to respect hierarquia, to respect knowledge of the more experienced fighters… and respect yourself.”
Muay Thai at SoJ
Fabiano was born in a small town near Rio de Janeiro, but lived most of his life in Juiz de Fora, our coach Fernando Halfeld’s Brazilian hometown. They started training together when Fabiano entered Jiu Jitsu – looking to add a new modality to his Muay Thai skills. Later, Fernando – still a Jiu Jitsu student – made the inverse move, and also started training Muay Thai under Fabiano.
But, despite their long standing friendship, the planes to bring Fabiano to Lake Jackson started… kind of by chance, like the beginning of Fabiano’s career. “Early this year, we started to chat on Instagram – after a long time without talking, since Fernando moved to America – and Fernando, sort of joking, invited me to teach at SoJ. I accepted, right away”, he recalls, laughing.
“Is there a bigger challenge than moving to a different country, to build a project from the bottle? I’m so excited to join this fine work that Fernando started five years ago, and proud to become a part of the School of Jiu Jitsu team and, with luck, Lake Jackson’s community.
And you, what about having a free trial with the coach Fabiano Silva? Don’t lose time and schedule a class at School of Jiu Jitsu.