Having grown up with few mentors in Ubatuba, Brazil, Alex “Little Rock” Silva knows how important positive male role models can be to young boys.
Ahead of his World Title tilt with ONE Championship’s reigning strawweight king Joshua “The Passion” Pacio at ONE: FIRE & FURY this Friday, 31 January, in Manila, Philippines, Silva took some time to visit Boys’ Town in his adopted home country of Singapore.
As a BJJ instructor at Evolve, Silva’s warm and friendly demeanor has made him an approachable and well-respected mentor to many of his students.
One of those students is Papa Rich, who introduced the 37-year-old Brazilian to Boys’ Town, a Catholic charity that provides residential care, youth outreach, adventure therapy, and clinical intervention for at-risk boys.
“Papa Rich is very involved with many organizations, and I’ve always been able to turn to him for such stuff,” Silva said.
“My wife and I went down to Boys’ Town to spend some time with the guys there.”
Silva aimed to foster deeper connections with the boys, so he left the formalities at the door.
“I didn’t want them to think of me like I’m a guest of honor and be just another guy there to give a motivational talk. I wanted to go there and have them see me as a friend,” he explained.
“We didn’t do any usual activities, but just spent a lot of time talking to the boys and getting to know them. Then we had dinner together and a sharing session.”
While the boys asked questions about his profession as a mixed martial artist, Silva took great care to talk about his personal life, which made him a more relatable figure.
“They would ask me about my career, when did I start fighting, or that they want to be a fighter like me,” Silva said.
“But I reminded many of them that they are fighters, too. They fight every day, against their struggles, for their dreams.
“Just like me, I told them I was born premature. I was bullied, but I stood up and fought against those things. I wanted them to see that they are no different from me.”
Silva’s message was well-received, and he felt grateful that the boys opened up to him during the visit.
“It isn’t my first time here – we’ve done things before with Evolve as a team,” he shared.
“But it really touched me when I spoke and the boys were all very attentive, you can see the expressions on their faces.”
Experiences like these not only serve to move the people he speaks to, but they also leave “Little Rock,” himself, feeling inspired.
“I am not good at public speaking, so to see the boys appreciating my message and enjoying the time we spent, it meant a lot to me,” Silva said.
Despite being busy putting the finishes touches on his training for Friday’s World Title showdown with Pacio, Silva was more than happy to spend time at Boys’ Town.
But he insists his job is not done.
“I’ve been discussing some ideas for what we want to do in Manila. I’m hoping to do something there as well since I’ll be there for a few days,” he said.
“I don’t like to tell others what I’m going to do, so I’ll just do it because I want to, and I know it comes from my heart. I just like to give back to others.”
Tune in to support Silva as he challenges for the ONE Strawweight World Title at ONE: FIRE & FURY on 31 January in Manila, Philippines.
The lead card starts on meWatch at 5:30pm Singapore Standard Time (SGT).
To watch the main card, tune-in to meWatch at 8:30pm SGT.
Also, Channel 5 will air the event via next day delay on Sunday at 12:00am SGT.
Download the ONE Super App to catch all the action live and for free.
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