UFC veteran Antonio Silva announces MMA retirement following string of worrying losses
Brazilian heavyweight veteran, Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva has announced his retirement from mixed martial arts active competition, amid a worrying run of seven straight losses, which includes six knockout defeats to boot.
Silva, 43, a native of Brasilia, last featured professionally in mixed martial arts in Moscow, Russia back in June of this year at an MMA Series 53 event, where he suffered a 15-second second round KO loss to Oleg Popov.
The loss followed a prior string of knockout defeats to Mark Hunt, Stefan Struve, Roy Nelson, Vitaly Minakov, and Quentin Domingos, with a unanimous decision defeat to Ivan Shtyrkov the only defeat in that run in which Silva did not suffer a knockout loss.
In his most recent professional win, Antonio Silva, a former EliteXC, Cage Rage, and Cage Warriors titleholder, defeated Soa Palelei with a TKO win back in August 2015 at UFC 190.
Antonio Silva confirms his retirement from MMA competition
Receiving multiple calls to consider his career in the sport, Silva admitted that “everybody has a limit” before announcing his decision to call time on his career.
“I fought the best, I beat the best and also lost to the best,” Antonio Silva told Canal Encarada during a recent interview. “There’s a time in life when you can’t – I fought in Russia, back-to-back fights basically, and I’m not taking anything away from my MMA opponent (Oleg Popov), but I never saw myself losing to this guy three or four years ago. This guy has nothing for me, but I’m 43 now.”
“I still have the same head I had when i was 35, but my body isn’t 35 anymore,” Antonio Silva explained. “It’s different. We have to respect it. Everybody has a limit. … It’s hard to say ‘I’ll stop, I can’t anymore.’ It’s hard for any professional in any sport.” (Transcribed by MMA Fighting)
Boasting a 19-14(1) professional record at the time of his mixed martial arts retirement, Silva holds professional wins over the likes Ricco Rodriguez, Justin Eilers, Andrei Arlovski, Mike Kyle, Travis Browne, Alistair Overeem, and Fedor Emelianenko.
