‘I slipped!’ Innocent Jean Silva debunks ‘20 videos’ of Noche UFC 4 slap attack

Jesse Holland is among the longest-tenured media professionals in the combat sports news space, covering MMA, professional wrestling and boxing on a full-time basis since early 2004.

Jean Silva is not a psychopath, he’s just clumsy.

The No. 6-ranked featherweight contender stands accused of slapping opponent Jose Delgado in the wake of their Noche UFC 4 main event last weekend in Glendale, following an exciting, back-and-forth brawl that ended with a “Lord” submission in the third round.

“He said he was going to kill the dog, calling it a mask, and nobody said anything,” Silva said on YouTube (via MMA Fighting). “When I got up and started barking in his face, suddenly there were 20 videos saying that I tried to slap him in the face. If you go back and look at my fights, when guys go down semi-conscious, giving up, I never go after them. Westin Wilson was right in front of me [at UFC Vegas 84]. I could have taken his head off with so many elbows, and I didn’t. I asked the referee, and the referee told me to keep going, so I threw elbows to his ribs so I wouldn’t hit him in the head.”

“Do you really think I would slap a guy who was on the ground? ‘Oh, but you did that to Diego [Lopes].’ Man, that’s different,” Silva continued. “He was insulting my team. As long as I’m not dead, I’m going to defend my people. Right there, when I went to bark at [Delgado], he turned around with everything he had, the referee pushed me, I slipped, and it looked like my hand was on his face.”

Referees are the new banana peels.

Silva, 29, improved to 18-3 with the win and could be in the running for the next 145-pound title shot. That all depends on whether or not the promotion would be interested in entertaining the idea of this “Funky” featherweight title eliminator.

For more Noche UFC 4 results and highlights click here.