Written by Brunno Ferreira | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Brunno Ferreira was 4 years old when Wanderlei Silva made a name for himself in a bloodbath with Artur Mariano at IVC in Brazil in 1997. Fast forward to 2025 and “Hulk”—now a protégé of Silva’s longtime trainer Andre Dida—has finally realized his dream of sparring with “The Axe Murderer” days before flying to Las Vegas for UFC 313.
“That was an epic moment for my career as a fighter and a person,” Ferreira told MMA Fighting ahead of his UFC 313 clash with Armen Petrosyan. “I have Wanderlei as a personal friend. We have a great relationship of going out, sitting down and having conversations, but I came to the team when master [Dida] was training him for the [Chael] Sonnen fight, so he was already retiring, he wasn’t training that much, so I never had the opportunity to train with him. And man, last week I had the opportunity to spar with him.”
Silva hasn’t fought since 2018, when he returned from the Chael Sonnen defeat to face longtime rival Quinton “Rampage” Jackson for a fourth time at Bellator 206, and that was before Ferreira made his professional MMA debut. Ferreira won eight in a row in the Brazilian circuit before competing on Dana White’s Contender Series, where he knocked out Leon Aliu. Hulk then caught the attention of the UFC on a short-notice debut, scoring a huge upset with a first-round knockout of Gregory Rodrigues.
“Regardless of age, man, it was a dream for me,” Ferreira said of training with the legendary fighter. “To see him on the mats is an inspiration already, to see him fighting there. But man, it’s like he has this chip that rotates in a different speed, brother. I think he left me cornered for a minute, Wanderlei Silva-style. I was in shock of being there, going through that adversity. It’s a surreal energy, man. He’s one of the OGs, right? He’s an inspiration.”
“Not only as a fighter but as a friend, he’s A+,” he continued. “He has such an energy, man. They got it done back when MMA was still starting and things were hard and nobody knew if it would become something, and thank God we all have jobs now because of them. Wanderlei, ‘Shogun’ [Rua], [Fabricio] Werdum, ‘Minotauro’ [Nogueira], they all planted the seeds so we would bear the fruits. It’s legend stuff, man.”
Ferreira enters his sixth UFC bout having scored three wins by first-round knockout inside the octagon. Meanwhile, Petrosyan has a .500 UFC record that also includes a win over “Robocop” Rodrigues, but he has lost his past two to Rodolfo Vieira and Shara Magomedov.
“I think the weight of my hand has earned me a ton of respect in the middleweight division,” Ferreira said. “I think my striking is better than his. I’ve seen holes in his game. He’s OK as a striker. He comes from a kickboxing background but we haven’t seen anything that surprising because he’s put on average performances. I’ve watched the Shara fight many times and it’s no big deal. And then we saw Shara fight Michael ‘Venom’ Page and you see he’s not an excellent striker like others in the UFC.
“He has many holes. I’ll stand with him, no problem. I’m not afraid. I’m fearless because I know my potential on the feet, but I’m going after opportunities. I can’t be irrational as a fighter. I’ll follow the gameplan and be comfortable. I haven’t been able to show my grappling yet, but that’s where I feel safe. I had a loss [to Magomedov] that surprised me. It made me rethink, replan and restructure all my game and arsenal, and now I’m back to fight a kickboxer. I have the kickboxer versus grappler mindset, but I know the fight starts on the feet and I’m comfortable there.”