"Bigfoot" Silva: Brazilian giant of mixed martial arts

The world of mixed martial arts is full of various outstanding athletes who represent different countries of the world. However, in the leaders of the MMA, along with the Americans, also appear the Brazilians, who brought their octagon Jiu-Jitsu. Along with the wrestling skills among the Hispanics, there are many great drummers. Nowadays, there are more and more real realists who are equally good at fighting and striking techniques. About one of these masters named Antonio ("Bigfoot") Silva and will be discussed in this article.

Biographical information

The giant from Brazil was born on September 14, 1979. The native city of the fighter is Campina Grande, in which he resides to this day. The height of the athlete is 193 centimeters. Despite constant physical activity, Antonio gradually expands and thickens his hands, feet and skull due to his existing disease, called acromegaly (disruption of the anterior lobe of the pituitary gland).

Sports career

"Bigfoot" Silva tried his hand at many promotions of the MMA, among which there are such titans as: Hero's, BodogFight and Elite Xtreme Combat (in the latter he even was a heavyweight division champion). He also successfully demonstrated himself in Strikeforce and Sengoku. Nowadays, the athlete performs in the world's leading promotion - Ultimate Fighting Championship, where his fate is still quite unenviable, as he is on the verge of dismissal.

Performances in Strikeforce

The first battle in this already defunct organization "Bigfoot" Silva held in November 2009. He was opposed by his compatriot Fabricio Verdum, who won the fight by a referee's decision (all the judges preferred him with a score of 29-28).

In the second battle, the Antonio Grand Prix fought Belarus Andrey Orlovsky, who also lost his debut in the promotion. Everyone expected that their duel would be very spectacular, and one of the fighters will finish the fight ahead of schedule, but in reality the confrontation lasted all three rounds, and the victory went to the Brazilian.

In the third match, "Bigfoot" Silva competed with Mac Kyle, who was able to overcome a technical knockout in the second five-minute session.

Meeting with the Last Emperor

In February 2011, Antonio met with the Russian Fedor Emelianenko. The first round was marked by a spectacular exchange of punches in the rack. Due to its colossal advantage in size, the Brazilian was able to break his nose to Fedor. After one of the attacks "Bigfoot" fighters were in the stalls, where the Russian tried to strangle the opponent with a guillotine, but Silva was able to get away from strangulation. However, the attack of Fedor did not end, and he tried to hold a so-called kimura - a painful technique on hand, from which the Brazilian was also able to successfully turn out.

The second five-minute session was marked by a pass to the feet of the Brazilian, after which he was over Emelianenko throughout the round, struck him and even tried several times to get a painful reception. As a result, the Russian formed a large hematoma near the right eye, doctors were forced to prohibit the continuation of the fight.

"Bigfoot" Silva vs. Overeem - this was the semi-final planned for the Grand Prix, but the Dutchman was forced to leave the tournament because of a hand injury, the organizers performed a substitution, giving the opportunity to speak to the American Daniel Cormier. In this confrontation, the Brazilian was considered an unconditional favorite, but sensationally lost in the first round.

Fights in the UFC

Debut fight in the leading promotion of the world for the Brazilian turned out to be extremely unfortunate - he lost by knockout Kane Velasquez. After this battle, two victories followed: Alistair Overeem and Travis Brown. In revenge with Velasquez, an American of Mexican descent was again stronger.

Mark Hunt - Bigfoot Silva - this confrontation also consisted of two fights. And if in the first battle was fixed a draw, which was later canceled because of a doping Brazilian found in the blood, then in the second battle an undeniable technical victory was won by a representative of New Zealand.

The last battles of Bigfoot Silva are also extremely unfortunate for him. In particular, in May 2016, at a tournament in Holland, he lost to local star Stefan Struve, and it took the Dutch only 16 seconds to win. It was during this time that he managed to "kill" the Brazilian with blows and send him to the knockout.