Former UFC heavyweight title challenger Antonio Silva is retiring from mixed martial arts following a 34-fight professional career that began in 2005.
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The Brazilian known as “Bigfoot” announced his decision in an interview with Canal Encarada. Silva, who turned 43 this past September, exits the sport with a 19-14-1 career mark. He lost his last seven MMA appearances dating back to 2015 — with all but one of those defeats coming via knockout or technical knockout. His most recent bout came this past June, when he suffered a second-round KO defeat to Oleg Popov at an event in Russia. That proved to be the last straw for Silva.“I fought the best, I beat the best and also lost to the best,” Silva said (translation via MMAFighting.com). “There’s a time in life when you can’t… I fought in Russia, back-to-back fights basically, and I’m not taking anything away from my MMA opponent, but I never saw myself losing to this guy three or four years ago. This …