Hours Before Amanda Nunes’ Retirement, Former UFC Title Challenger Hangs Up Their Gloves Following Brutal Loss

Following her dominant performance over Irene Aldana at UFC 289, Amanda Nunes announced her retirement from the octagon. With this, her legendary career, which saw her become the UFC two-division champion, comes to an end. But the ‘Lioness’ isn’t the only Brazilian legend to exit the sport today. After competing for close to two decades inside the ring, António Silva has finally bid adios to MMA as well, announcing the end of his long fighting career through Twitter.

‘Bigfoot’s last fight came for France’s Kingdom Fighting promotion in a losing effort against Salim El Ouassaidi. This was his eighth straight loss inside the MMA cage, with his last win coming way back in 2015 at UFC 190. Considering this losing streak and the fact that Silva is now 43, this decision to hang up the gloves makes perfect sense. Over the years in the sports, the Brazilian made a name for himself with his deadly power and infamous mount. In his career, he fought for many major promotions, including UFC, Strikeforce, EliteXC, Cage Rage and Cage Warriors.

Bigfoot’s distinguished career with a sad latter half

Starting his professional career way back in 2005, António ‘Bigfoot’ Silva would go undefeated during the first seven fights. In his decorated fighting career, the American Top Team alumni captured the heavyweight strap at EliteXC and Cage Rage. Silva’s resume includes wins over some of the greatest heavyweights, including the likes of Fedor Emelianenko, Alistair Overeem, and Andrei Arlovski. He even came close to becoming Strikeforce’s heavyweight champion, reaching the semifinals of the 2011 heavyweight Grand Prix. Though would lose to the eventual winner, Daniel Cormier.

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However, despite a significant rise in the sport, ‘Bigfoot’s career hit a rough patch, starting with his stint with UFC. Making his debut for the promotion in 2011, he only managed to win only three out of the eleven fights inside the octagon.

Despite this, he got a chance to fight Cain Velasquez for the heavyweight gold. But in a similar fashion to Daniel Cormier, his teammate would stop the giant in the first round itself. The UFC eventually released him in 2016 but failed to score a single win in his remaining career. Meanwhile, he also tried his hands in other combat sports, including professional boxing, bare-knuckle boxing, and kickboxing. But once again, found no success there as well.

The MMA faithful came forward to express their reactions to the Brazilian’s retirement.

Fans react to the retirement of Bigfoot

Earlier this day, António ‘Bigfoot’ Silva shared the video of his retirement on twitter along with the caption: “Thank you God for my MMA carrer….. Depois de 19 anos hoje chegou o dia da despedida do MMA, obrigado meu Deus por tudo”. In the emotional video, we could see him placing his gloves in the middle of the ring amidst the claps surrounding him. As soon as this post was out, fans begin to react to the veteran’s retirement.

Some fans reacted with emotional message, paying tribute to his time in the post

However, there was fair share of negativity as well

How do you think Bigfoot would be remembered ? Let us know in the comments.

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