Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
20 combined knockout losses in MMA. Good chance someone gets knocked out in this one.
Two former UFC heavyweight title challengers who are way past their prime and have endured an ungodly amount of head trauma are going to duke it out in bare-knuckle boxing.
Bare Knuckle FC confirmed that Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva will take on fellow Brazilian Gabriel Gonzaga in the BKFC 8 main event on October 19th in Tampa, Florida.
“I am very excited to have these two legends competing in the BKFC squared circle,” BKFC president David Feldman said in a press release. “They have fought and beat some of the best fighters in the world and now they will fight each other. Tampa is a great fight market and we are thrilled to be able to host another event there. The fans in Tampa love BKFC and we plan on giving them another great show.”
Silva (19-12, 1 NC) hasn’t competed in any form of combat sports since he was TKO’d by Rico Verhoeven in an outrageous GLORY kickboxing mismatch in China. He has won only one time in MMA since 2013, most recently suffering a second-round TKO loss to Vitaly Minakov in June 2017.
Gonzaga (17-12) retired from MMA after a KO defeat to Derrick Lewis back in 2016. This is MMA, so slim chance in hell that retirement would actually stick, and he returned to 2018 to get knocked out by Aleks Emelianenko. Much like Silva, Gonzaga has just one MMA win since 2013, although he did prevail in a four-round pro boxing match in 2017.
Gonzaga and Silva have been knocked out a combined 20 times (10 apiece) in their respective MMA careers. This is obviously appointment viewing.