Antonio 'Bigfoot' Silva announces he is coming out of retirement less than a week after hanging his gloves

The MMA world has been stunned once again, this time due to Antonio 'Bigfoot' Silva announcing his return to action just one week out from his retirement. This isn't the first time the Brazilian has announced he would retire from the sport and his supporters are beginning to fear the worst for the veteran's long-term health.

Before his significant downfall inside the cage, the titan had a great 18-4 record and held wins over some of the biggest names in heavyweight history. Since then, the powerhouse has gone on a terrible 1-11-1 run and hasn't picked up a win since 2015 despite fighting eight times since then.

In a post on social media, Antonio 'Bigfoot' Silva announced his return from retirement and demanded that his most recent opponent, Salim El Ouassaidi, grants him a rematch as he believes he did enough to win on the night.

"Let's do a rematch Kingdom Fighting, Giom Peltier. I'm ready and I'm coming back from retirement to fight again because I know I didn't lose."

The Moroccan had only been fighting since 2021 before being matched up against the 18-year veteran, but that didn't stop him from getting his hand raised against a former UFC veteran.

Excluding a loss early on his in career, 'Bigfoot' Silva had only been defeated by killers during his prime years inside the cage. The monster lost just twice in Strikeforce to Fabricio Werdum and Daniel Cormier, before making his way into the UFC and losing to Cain Velasquez ahead of his aforementioned downfall.

While it's time for him to hang up the gloves before sustaining any lasting damage, the South American can be proud of wins over the legendary Fedor Emelianenko, Alistair Overeem, Andrei Arlovski, and other noticeable names.

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Is this the first time Antonio 'Bigfoot' Silva has retired?

As stated earlier, his recent retirement from MMA isn't the first time 'Bigfoot' Silva has publicly announced that he would leave the sport behind.

Similar to what is seemingly happening this time around, the UFC and Strikeforce alum was officially done with the sport before later revealing to the world that he would return—though this time was much quicker.

Back on December 27, 2022, Silva decided to step away from the cage to focus on becoming a BJJ coach. This was short-lived and the 43-year-old would return just six months later.