Six months after announcing his MMA retirement, Antonio Silva entered the cage once again on Saturday to fight in France.
After losing a decision to Salim El Ouassaidi, “Bigfoot” said on Instagram that he is “100 percent” retired following the bout at Kingdom Fighting 1.
Ouassaidi is now 6-1 as a professional MMA fighter.
Silva had lost 10 bouts in a row under MMA, kickboxing, and bare-knuckle boxing rules heading into the event, suffering knockout defeats in nine of those matches, including setbacks against the likes of Rico Verhoeven, Mark Hunt, Roy Nelson and Stefan Struve. The man who once challenged Cain Velasquez for the UFC heavyweight title, at the time with a record of 18-4, now leaves the sport with only one win in his final 13 MMA appearances.
His MMA record now sits at 19-15.
“The fight ended just now, and thank God it was a great fight,” Silva said on a live stream on Instagram. “It was three rounds, and I’m very happy. I fought a 25-year-old guy and I’m 43 in my last fight, and I’m very happy.”
Silva said he feels he could have won a decision but was “fighting in my opponent’s house, the promoter is his manager, but he did a great fight and he deserved it too.”
“It was a great fight,” Silva continued. “We tried the knockout all the time, he and I, and in the end I retired. I put down my gloves in the center of the octagon. To me, everything has a beginning and an end, and I’m very happy and satisfied. We never want to stop, no professional athlete wants to stop, even in volleyball or football, but everything has a time, and I did this for 19 years.”
Salim El Ouassaidi defeats Bigfoot Silva by decision in the Kingdom Fighting 1 main event. This marks Silva’s 11th consecutive loss across four sports stemming back to 2015. pic.twitter.com/TClOcnCEMY
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) June 10, 2023
