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Wanderlei Silva has reportedly signed with Bare Knuckle FC
In a bit of sad news for long time MMA fans, 43-year-old Wanderlei Silva isn’t retiring and is instead reportedly heading to bare knuckle boxing. According to a report from Fan Sided, the former PRIDE champion has signed a deal with Bare Knuckle FC, with the date and opponent likely to be announced on their next event.
Silva last fought in September 2018, when he was knocked out by a former PRIDE rival in Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in Bellator. The MMA pioneer has been a part of a lot of legendary wars, but like many of the fighters recently signed to the bare knuckle promotion, he has also taken a lot of damage throughout his career.
The PRIDE legend certainly has had a hall-of-fame type of career in MMA, but it is abundantly clear that he is way past his prime at this point. Silva is currently 0-2 in Bellator, and has just one win in almost eight years. He was also suspended for three years for refusing to take a random drug test.
If it still isn’t obvious that this is a terrible idea, Silva himself recently spoke about how he fears he might have CTE, citing that he has “eight of the 10 symptoms” and plans to donate his brain for research.