After ending his friendship with Muricio Ruffy, Jean Silva has now gone on to suggest that his Fighting Nerds teammate consult a psychiatrist. The team that stood with each other as brothers has now broken with Silva, unfollowing Ruffy on social media. With Silva targeting a fight with Alexander Volkanovski for the featherweight title, Ruffy’s alignment with ‘The Great’ before UFC 325 has played a role in breaking the friendship.

While Ruffy defeated Rafael Fiziev at UFC 325, his victory came amid significant personal hardship, including illness and the loss of a family member. The UFC fighter revealed that his brother died by suicide, while he was also battling influenza in the lead-up to the fight. The Brazilian trained and camped for UFC 325 mostly in Australia with Alexander Volkanovski, stepping away from his home gym, Fighting Nerds. Silva’s first rage toward Ruffy showed up when he took a crack at Volkanovski, saying, “I am going there to camp with Ilia Topuria to break you.”

Jean Silva speaks candidly about Mauricio Ruffy’s split as mental health takes center stage

“I don’t think there’s much to explain. I think Ruff there and me here are internal matters. It’s not something I’m going to expose. What I can say is that I want my distance, and I hope he wants the same, too. If he says no, that he loves me, it’s okay. This relationship… It’s over. It’s over. I wish the best for Ruff. I really want him to win. This kid has an absurd star.”

Although the complete details of the split between the two have not been made public yet, it’s hard not to speculate whether Ruffy’s growing relationship with Volkanovski, the UFC champion in Silva’s own division, played a role in the fallout. Silva further added, “He has the internal problems that he has to solve. I hope he looks for help. Not only him, but many other athletes. Just like me, I have a psychiatrist every week, so I hope he looks for help. I hope other people look for him. I hope he lives his life well. But Jean and Ruffy don’t exist anymore. The straight talk only existed in my head.”

Mental health troubles are something Silva has always openly talked about, previously acknowledging his childhood trauma. Rather than disguising his struggles, he has always accepted professional help, and now, he is urging his former teammate to seek the same support.

And as for MMA fallouts, this is not something unfamiliar in the community. The sport has seen close allies turn into bitter rivals before, from Jon Jones and Rashad Evans to Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington. But what separates Silva’s situation is the emotional honesty with which he has addressed the rupture.

Jean Silva targets Alexander Volkanovski as personal and professional lines blur

Jean Silva last entered the octagon this January at UFC 324 against Arnold Allen, where he came out winning via unanimous decision in a dominant fashion. Following Volkanovski’s win over Diego Lopes at UFC 325, Silva took to Twitter to issue a challenge to the champion with a not-so-subtle threat about doing whatever it takes to dethrone him. “I know that Volkanovski is asking for [Movsar] Evloev, I don’t know what. He’s asking the guys not to get hurt,” Silva said. “Bro, sorry to inform you, if you want to stay good and without getting hurt, I understand.”

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Of course, Silva is another important member of the Fighting Nerds, and Volkanovski can’t help but wonder if his new friendship with Ruffy really hit a nerve that made him so angry.

“I don’t know. I think he’s a bit upset about the Ruffy thing. It was not anything more than you’ve got Ruffy, who’s a part of Engage Industries at the moment [and] AP Management, we connected sort of through that. Did a bit of training there and he’s obviously a very good guy. He obviously just wanted to work with me. So I was always going to work with him. I know [Rafael Fiziev], that was tough because I know Rafa as well but I was always going to work with Ruffy. I think Jean Silva took that to heart.”

In a sport where training rooms often double as families, such fractures are rarely clean. Whether this tension ever spills into the Octagon remains uncertain, but for now, Silva has made one thing clear: the divide is real, and it has reshaped how he approaches both friendships and fights moving forward.