Paulo Ceasar Silva

Pride Fighting Championships: How do you feel? Paolo Silva: Good. Real good.

Pride:	You're much bigger in the shoulders and chest.
Silva:	Thanks. I'm a growing boy! (laughing)
Pride:	What's your weight?
Silva:	165 kg.
Pride:	Who are your corners?
Silva:	Ricardo Bittencourt and Al Irish.
Pride:	You spent a couple of weeks boxing with Al Irish, right?
Silva:	Yeah, a couple of weeks.
Pride:	How did that go?
Silva:	I think it was good.
Pride:	What else have you been doing since the last time we saw you?
Silva:	I've been concentrating on my boxing and making my punches better. I've been training on the ground because I've got 3 losses on the ground. I'm training to improve my position. Everything is better. We looked at my last fight and tried to concentrate on making better positions.
Pride:	So you've been working on submissions more?
Silva:	More on takedown defense.
Pride:	What is your New Year's resolution? What are you going to change next year?
Silva:	I've gotta change something for next year? (laughing) This year was good to me. I'd like it to be the same thing except win more fights.
Pride:	What do you think about Choi Mu Bae?
Silva:	He can take a punch. I know it's going to be hard. No fight is easy in the ring. I remember my first fight with Heath Herring, a lot of people said it was going to be easy for Heath. It wasn't easy for him, though. It's very hard when you step in the ring with someone. Now I'm not brand new. I have more experience. I come to Japan a lot to watch fighters. I'm trying to do better.
Pride:	Every time we see you, you seem to be in better shape.
Silva:	My body is transforming because this isn't pro-wrestling. Fighting is hard work.
Pride:	Do you find that you are getting faster?
Silva:	Yeah. I had 2 months training for this fight. This fight will be maybe a couple of minutes. It's a long time training for a short time in the ring. I'm a giant at 7'2", not 7' or 6'10", and I'm big so I'm enjoying it.
Pride:	There's never been a man as big as you in this sport. You can get tired faster just because of your weight. Is there any way of training you to improve your conditioning?
Al Irish:	He doesn't get tired. He's got great conditioning. He'll go for an hour, non-stop. We train for 2 hours in the ring with 4 different boxers at 4 different weights. He would go non-stop for 2 complete hours. His conditioning is in top shape. He won't get tired. Heart wise and lung wise, he's in perfect shape.
Silva:	I took a lot of punches, too! (laughing) Punches don't surprise me anymore.
Irish:	Yeah, we're working on keeping his hands up. He's doing really good. His speed is coming along. His punches are combination punches. He's got snaps at the end of his punches, where he used to just maul at somebody. He'll knock someone the fuck out now. He's got a good punch now.
Ricardo Bittencourt:	On the ground, he moves his hips now. Protecting the takedowns better. He knows better, what is going on. To turn him on, on the ground, he has to train for at least 20 minutes straight and then he will start (training) on the ground. He's doing so good, he separated my rotator cup in my shoulder with his weight.
Pride:	There are still people that believe that the only reason you are in PRIDE is because of your size. When they see you on PPV, they will see a visually different fighter this time.
Irish:	As you saw when he came in today, his whole body has changed. His mentality has changed. He's dangerous now. Before, he didn't understand the whole game. Now, he's not going to wait and I feel sorry for Choi.
Bittencourt:	I think he learned a lot. He's got to defend the takedowns and no matter the size of the guy, they are all dangerous and he better be ready. So, he's here to prove them wrong. He's going to show that he's a good boxing fighter, a good jujitsu fighter and he can do well.