Antônio "Bigfoot" Silva to fight again

Antônio "Bigfoot" Silva, a former contender for the heavyweight belt in the UFC, will attempt to win his first MMA match in seven years.

In March 2005, at the age of 43, Silva made his professional MMA debut. He entered the UFC after stints in Strikeforce and Elite XC with victories over fighters like Alistair Overeem, Travis Browne, and Soa Palelei.

Silva has enjoyed some measure of success in MMA, but lately, his career has crumbled. His most recent kickboxing match was in September, and he has lost seven straight MMA matches. Six of Silva's seven defeats during this losing streak have been by knockout. His most recent loss was to Oleg Popov at MMA Series 53 back in June, when he was struck viciously and the match was over.

Silva had been scheduled to make his MMA comeback at Eagle FC 44 earlier this year, but he pulled out of the main event matchup with Tyrone Spong. Sergei Kharitonov took his place and eventually won the match.

Silva recently confirmed his return to MMA in Brave CF in an Instagram post.

“Hi everyone, now it’s official, I signed the contract to fight on March 9th in the Brave organization against Haim Gozali,” Silva said. “I’m so excited for that, and I’ll see you soon Haim.”

It's unknown if Silva plans to retire from MMA after this bout or if he'll keep competing. It's also unclear whether Silva's comeback is just an effort to conclude his career on a high note.