Bruno Machado relishing 'dream' Dubai clash with Anderson Silva at Global Titans opener

Even now, long after the fight was set and deep into training camp, Bruno Machado still cannot quite believe it.

Given the opposition, the headline act, and the location, that’s perfectly understandable.

“Ah, man,” Machado says, followed by a lengthy pause. “It’s a dream … a dream. I have not enough words to say what I’m thinking, because it’s a lot of big things together at the same time. You understand?

“I never expected from where I came that one day this would happen to my life. There’s no way for me to expect that. Like, ‘Hey man, in the future I’m going to fight Anderson Silva, in the Burj Al Arab, on the helipad, with Floyd Mayweather heading the fight card’. Man, it’s unbelievable.”

Machado, the current UAE Warriors lightweight champion, finishes with a laugh, and that rather encapsulates the very thought of what is apparently to come next month.

That, on May 14 and, supposedly yes, on the Burj Al Arab helipad, the Brazilian will face compatriot and UFC great Anderson Silva in an exhibition boxing match as part of Global Titans Fight Series, a new combat-sports production with plans to stage events at “iconic locations across four continents”.

Other sites targeted, organisers say, include the Pyramids in Egypt, Niagara Falls and Table Mountain.

For the UAE launch, entitled “The Showcase in the Skies of Dubai”, Machado and Silva serve as the prelude to unbeaten former five-weight world champion Mayweather’s clash with fellow American Don Moore.

Naturally, as he speaks to The National following another intense session at Cobra Fitness Abu Dhabi gym in Al Bandar, Machado is relishing the chance that came almost out of nowhere.

“To tell you the truth, I really don’t know [how it happened],” he says. “But in my