Edgar Chairez says a gun attack in his native Mexico nearly killed him more than a decade ago, and he is talking about it now because he fights Bruno Silva at UFC Vegas 118 on Saturday. The 30-year-old flyweight tied that memory to the present by posting a hospital-bed photo earlier this year, then explaining how he made it out alive.
Chairez said the shooting grew out of a street fight involving a friend, not a fight that was his. His friend was shot four times, while Chairez was hit once after stepping in and trying to break things up. He said he ran as the shooters kept firing until they ran out of bullets, and that the only reason he survived was that their aim was terrible.
That story lands differently because Chairez is not speaking as an outsider looking back on violence. He said violence was a constant presence while he grew up on the streets of Mexicali, and until he was 18 he thought he would make his life in football rather than fighting. He said sports were the focus from the beginning, and that he only came to combat sports through the wider pull of Mexican fighters he heard about growing up.
In the cage, Chairez has built some momentum to go with the personal backdrop. He is 3-2 in the UFC with one no-contest, has won his past two fights against CJ Vergara and Felipe Bunes, and has lost to Joshua Van and Tatsuro Taira. A win over Silva would not change his past, but it would deepen the case that he belongs in the mix as the UFC rankings talk starts to turn toward the division.
There is still one gap he did not fill: he did not spell out what injuries he suffered in the shooting. What he did say is that he believes he survived for a reason, and he hopes Saturday gives him a shot at something far outside the octagon. Five days before Mexico’s first World Cup match in Mexico City, Chairez said a win could help him get invited to watch a match live — a small reward, maybe, but one that would link the end of one chapter in his life to the next one he is still trying to earn.
