Former UFC heavyweight title challenger Antonio
Silva is expected to make his return after a three-year absence
against Brett
Martin at Taura MMA 11 on Oct. 30.
Combate was first to report that Silva had signed with the
Brazilian MMA promotion. Taura MMA 11 takes place in Kissimmee,
Florida, and is also expected to include former UFC fighters
Rousimar
Palhares, Guto Innocente and William
Macario on the card.
Silva hasn’t competed since June 2, 2017, when he suffered a
second-round knockout loss against Vitaly
Minakov at Fight Nights Global 68. “Bigfoot” has lost his last
five professional outings dating back to a first-round TKO defeat
to Mark
Hunt at UFC 193. The 40-year-old Brazilian is 19-12-1 as a
professional and owns notable wins over the likes of Alistair
Overeem, Travis
Browne, Fedor
Emelianenko and Andrei
Arlovski.
Martin, who is the Legacy Fighting Alliance heavyweight champion,
enters the matchup on a five-bout winning streak. The 26-year-old
Triumph MMA representative won the LFA heavyweight tournament under
unusual circumstances, claiming a pair of disqualification
victories against Renan
Ferreira and Daniel
James last year. “Big Dog” owns a 9-1 career mark, with four
triumphs coming inside the distance.