Antonio “Big Foot” Silva’s manager comments on camp change, looking forward to meeting Daniel Cormier and Alistair Overeem

Alex Davis, the manager of Strikeforce heavyweight grand-prix semi-finalist Antonio “Big Foot” Silva, has been giving his reasons behind the giant Brazilian switching camps to Team Nogueira earlier this week, as well as his upcoming fight with Daniel Cormier on September 10^th.
Speaking via MMAJunkie.com, Davis said:

“We all go way back – ‘Minotauro’ helped Antonio a lot in the beginning of his career and has continued helping since. Antonio actually calls Nogueira ‘Godfather.’ I think Antonio came down to Brazil to help ‘Minotauro’ and felt real comfortable training with ‘Minotauro,’ Anderson Silva, Junior Dos Santos, Rafael ‘Feijao’ Cavalcante and the rest of the camp. Like I said, we all go way back, and Team Nogueira is definitely one of the best places to train at the moment – even more so since everyone has fights coming up.”

Davis also spoke about Silva’s change of opponent for the Strikeforce heavyweight grand-prix semi finals, as well as not ruling out a future fight with current champion, Alistair Overeem.

“Antonio was fighting a tall striker, and now he faces a short wrestler. He was facing a big name, now he is facing an up-and-comer, which does not in any way take away from Daniel’s capacity as a fighter. I think it’s a tough fight.

“I do think that this move is beneficial. I think that Antonio needs a steady and experienced group to train with, especially at the level he is competing. I don’t think you create that by just getting up one day and deciding that you are going to open up an MMA training center for pros, throw a bunch of money at it, and you start winning fights – which seems like the stage the other camp he was at is in. It’s just not like that, and I worry that something like that could affect Antonio’s career.”

“With this move to Team Nogueira, I think we’ll continue to see improvement’s in Antonio’s game. We just hope that the problem with Overeem’s toe was not life-threatening or anything. Hopefully he gets better soon so Antonio can beat him.”

Silva will be preparing for his Strikeforce heavyweight grand-prix semi-final bout with Daniel Cormier on September 10^th, a fight the Brazilian will no doubt hope will put him in line to make history later this year/early next.