Thiago Silva

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1 Profile
2 Early Career
3 UFC Career
4 Mixed martial arts record
5 Gallery
6 External links

Profile

Thiago Silva (born November 12, 1982) is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist and Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt who fights out of American Top Team.

He stands 6 ft. 1in. (185 cm) tall and fights in the light heavyweight division.

He is a Pancrase and UFC veteran and currently fights as a light heavyweight for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Early Career

Thiago Silva made his professional mixed martial arts debut on September 10, 2005 for the Predator Fighting Championships. At 4.17 of round two he defeated his opponent, Rubens Macula via TKO.

Fighting predominantly in Brazil in his early career, he was a common fixture for the Fury Fighting Championships and Show Fight organizations.

He went 8-0 to start in his Brazilian based career, culminating in a 4-man one night tournmanent victory for Fury FC. He finished both of his opponents via TKO in under two minutes apiece.

Silva's first fight outside of Brazil came in legendary Japanese organization, Pancrase in February of 2007. He faced the commonly outmatched and battered, Tatsuya Mizuno whom he defeated via KO due to a soccer kick at 4.29 of round 1.

UFC Career

With an unblemished 9-0 start to his professional MMA career, Silva got the call up to the big show when he was signed to a UFC contract and to fight James Irvin at UFC 71 in May of 2007.

The two traded early, with Irvin getting the better of exchanges. Silva shot in for a takedown and in defending the shot, Irvin's knee blew out and the fight was quickly halted afterwards, giving Silva the TKO victory.

Silva returned to UFC competition at UFC 75, against UFC newcomer, Tomasz Drwal. In a sloppy but entertaining affair, both fighters exchanged heatily on the feet with both fighters gassing by the end of the first round. In the second, Silva was slightly fresher and eventually stopped Drwal in the second round at 4.23 of round 2.

Silva was given co-main event honors for UFC 78, an event that went through a revolving door of main events before a bout between TUF 2 winner, Rashad Evans and TUF 3 winner, Michael Bisping was inked.

Silva faced rising star, Houston Alexander and quickly showed off his skill and Alexander's deficiencies on the ground when he passed Alexander's guard and mounted him easily. From mount, Silva landed some brutal shots that knocked Alexander in and out of consciousness until the fight was stopped.

Almost a year to the day after his UFC debut, Silva was signed to face the biggest and highest profile fight of his career against Rashad Evans at UFC 84. However, when Mauricio Rua had to pull out of UFC 85's main event fight with Chuck Liddell, Evans was recruited as the replacement, leaving Silva opponentless.

An opponent was quickly found though, as Antonio Mendes, a UFC virgin, was tapped as Evans' replacement. Mendes showed some early ferocity, dropping Silva with a powerful high kick that collected Silva upside his head. Silva bounced back though, resorting to his bread and butter - his jiu jitsu - as an attemped throw by Mendes left him in a bad position that Silva capitalised on with the mount position, eventually forcing Silva to tap from strikes at 2.24 of round 1.

Silva was to return at UFC 89: Bisping vs. Leben against enigma, Lyoto Machida but had to pull out due to a back injury. The bout has been rescheduled to take place on January 31st at UFC 94: St. Pierre vs. Penn 2.