‘Everything has a time, and…’ - Former UFC title challenger Antonio 'Bigfoot' Silva confirms retirement

Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva is finally hanging up his gloves for real this time after he suffered a loss to a unanimous decision against Salim El Oussaidi. The former UFC title challenger made the comeback at Kingdom Fighting 1 in Grenoble. After July 2022, he decided not to compete again until he made this comeback.

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Before that, in 16 combat sports fights, he got knocked out 12 times. Hence, all fans, media members, and others were calling for retirement. Now, after this loss on 10 June 2023, he confirmed his retirement and laid his gloves in the cage. Antonio also claimed that his decision this time around is “100 percent” final.  

“Everything has a beginning and an end, and I’m very happy and satisfied.” - Antonio 'Bigfoot' Silva

During an Instagram Live (per MMA Fighting), he said: “It was a great fight. 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.”

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He also shared a video on Instagram and in the caption, he wrote: “Thanks God for everything you do in my professional life... Done Thank God for everything, today I say goodbye to MMA after 19 years in a very tough fight with the 25-year-old athlete, we got out in a beating for 3 rounds and in the end he took it by decision. I finish my career very happy for everything I've achieved for almost 2 decades, thank first to God, to @alexdavismma @danlambertatt @eliwanderley and @mariosukata for everything they've done in my professional life....” However, Silva had some great wins during his career and he defeated the likes of Andrei Arlovski, Fedor Emelianenko, Travis Browne, Alistair Overeem, and Soa Palelei.