Given that the average Brazilian MMA fighter can hold a grudge long enough to make the Count of Monte Cristo look like a goddamned amateur, it should come as no surprise that Thiago Silva hasn’t exactly gotten over suffering his first career loss to Lyoto Machida at UFC 94 last year … or that the fighter took such glee in seeing his rival get knocked out earlier this month by Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.

Silva told Tatame.com this week that he respects Shogun, so was pleased to see him finally emerge from UFC 113 with the 205-pound strap around his waist, but I don’t think we’re reading too much into it to say there are also some lingering bad feelings about Machida bubbling underneath the surface. Silva’s (fully sic’d) comments are after the jump …

From Tatame:

There’s just something a little bit sinister about the phrase “even happier” combined with that parenthetical laugh. As if Silva didn’t really care how or when it happened, as long as karma caught up with Machida somewhere down the road.

Thiago had cruised to 13-0 before meeting up with The Dragon in January of 2009, but Machida derailed the Sao Paulo native’s rise by knocking him cold with a downward punch just a second before the end of the first round. The win boosted Machida into a title fight with Rashad Evans (which, as you know, he won) and was equally important to dashing the public notion of him as a fighter who “couldn’t finish.” On the heels of the loss, Silva rebounded to knock out Keith Jardine at UFC 102 but then encountered another setback when he fell to Evans by unanimous decision at UFC 108.

He now tells Tatame that he’s slated to fight Tim Boetsch on Aug. 7 at UFC 117. Silva has agreed to the bout, but the paperwork is not yet signed, he says. After that, if the UFC saw fit to grant him a rematch with either Machida or Evans, Silva wouldn’t say no …