Antônio Silva: ‘Bigfoot’ Retaliates Against Critics After 16-Second Loss And Offers To ‘Beat Your A**’ At His Florida Gym

Since 2005, Antônio Silva has been a standout fighter in the MMA for his unique look, one that earned him the ring name “Bigfoot.” Along with the look came the skill and the attitude in which he was undefeated for seven straight fights before losing to Eric Pele, a loss he answered with nine more victories out of 10 fights afterwards.

Unfortunately for Antônio Silva, he is no longer a young guy, and the years of fighting are starting to catch up to him. Since 2011, Silva has only won one of his last seven fights. Besides that, all of his losses have been knockout victories for his competitors, mostly in the first round which includes Cain Velasquez, Andrei Arlovski, Frank Mir, Mark Hunt, and just recently, Stefan Struve at UFC Fight Night: Overeem vs. Arlovski.

Antônio Silva’s loss to Stefan Struve is the worst loss he has suffered thus far. As shown in the video of the full fight above, Silva tried to charge Struve but was met with fists. When Silva got Struve against the fence, Struve hit him with a knee which sent Silva down. Struve followed-up with some hard elbows to Silva’s temple, which Silva seemed to not respond to, before the referee stopped the fight.

Needless to say, the MMA media, as well as the MMA community, pounced on Antônio Silva, criticizing his loss. Apparently, that was the piece of straw that broke the back of “Bigfoot” as he retaliated against his critics. Silva even invited said critics to his Florida gym so he could “beat your a**.”

Antônio Silva expressed his disdain towards his critics through his official Instagram account. In it, he seems to ramble in different directions, which is often the case when someone is quite upset, in which he includes a fighter’s feelings and desires and how Brazil lives in misery.

For those who cannot read Portuguese, MMA Mania provided a translation of what Antônio Silva wrote. Take note of the end of the quote in which he offers his haters a chance to “fight him” as long as you bring a mouthpiece, gloves, and shin guards.

“Many people think that because we are famous, we don’t have feelings or that we don’t want to answer some people sometimes. I’ll be very straight to the point with some sh***y Brazilians. This is why our country is deep in misery. This is why we don’t have education and culture, but this anti-patriotism instead. All of you who envy me are people who weren’t able to achieve your goals, and find it easier to sit on your a** and talk about other people on the internet. People who work hard through pain, exhaustion and many times overcome illnesses to conquer their success. I just want all you of who talk about me to f**k off. Go sit on a giant manioc and if you get offended or as mad as you get in front of the computer, I train at American Top Team from Monday to Saturday, 5750 FL-7 -?? Coconut Creek, Florida, 33073, that’s the address. Just show up, but don’t forget your mouthpiece, gloves and shin guards.”

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who do recognize the work of a professional and I apologize for being rude. An athlete is not made of only wins, nobody wants to lose, but sometimes we make one plan and God makes another.”

Ultimately, Antônio Silva is probably at a time in his career when retirement does seem like a viable option. As mentioned earlier, he has been fighting in MMA since 2006, sometimes four or five fights in a single year. He may have the ambitious drive, but his body is probably not keeping up at this time. There would be no shame in him retiring. Besides, “Bigfoot” can say he knocked out one of the greatest, Fedor Emelianenko, and that he won 15 out of 17 of his fights prior to that.

[Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images]