(A rare Joe Silva sighting caught on film. Like seeing Bigfoot ride by on a unicorn.)

As regular Cage Potato readers already know, we’re big fans of UFC matchmaker Joe Silva both because he does a consistently kick-ass job of putting interesting fights together, and also because he’s a passionate, passionate man who will not hesitate to jump right out of his chair if you do something awesome.  The thing about Silva is, nobody really knows much about him since he doesn’t do interviews and generally stays out of the spotlight as much as possible.  We get a brief glimpse of the man behind the machine in this Las Vegas Sun article, though somehow it manages to make him seem even more mysterious than before:

Even [Dana] White, who is pretty much the complete source for all Silva-related information, remains hazy on his background.

"Joe was involved even before Zuffa bought the company," said White… "What I believe is that the old owner didn’t know a lot about MMA and Joe was kind of his right-hand man. It was actually Tito (Ortiz) that told me at that time, ‘You should talk to this guy.’"

And apparently when you talk to Joe Silva, you end up doing whatever it is Joe Silva wants you to do.  Just ask Rashad Evans:

"Every time Joe Silva calls, you have an excitement but also an, ‘Oh (expletive), Joe Silva is calling," Evans said. "He asks you what you think, but he has a way of making you do it even when at the time you don’t want to do it. He’s got a knack of persuasion where you’ll be talking and then all of a sudden you’re like, ‘Wait, what did I just agree to?’ … He’ll persuade you where he’ll say, ‘Listen, you can do this and you can do that and your styles are like this.’  And eventually you’re like, ‘Yeah Joe, that does sound good. Let’s do it.’"

A man without a past who can talk you into anything.  If that’s not the plot of a romance novel, it ought to be.  You think the two of you are just meeting for dinner and to discuss your budding MMA career.  Then the next thing you know you wake up feeling cold and alone, just in time to catch a glimpse of Joe Silva casually tossing his sportcoat over his shoulder on his way out of your hotel room. 

Did it really happen? you ask yourself.  Do you dare tell anyone?