Bigfoot: God willing, everything will be alright vs. Verhoeven

Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva has fought ten times in the past four years. He won one, had a majority draw changed to a No Contest over issues around his then legal use of Testosterone Replacement Therapy, and lost eight, seven by knockout. His next bout is a non-title kickboxing match vs. Glory heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven. The Dutch champion is a decade younger, and in stark contrast to Silva has lost just one of his last ten, in fact of his last 14.

Silva has never competed in kickboxing before. His manager is on record as saying he wished Bigfoot did not take the fight, but noted he needs the money. Never the less, in an interview with Guilherme Cruz for MMA Fighting, Silva defended the fight, and said he expects to win.

“Critics will always exist and we have to know how to deal with them, said Silva. “Sometimes they don’t even mean to criticize you, but they are just jealous they wanted to be a professional fighter and don’t have that talent. I was always a humble person, I came from a humble family in Paraiba and competed around the world, and some people don’t accept that. It’s a heavyweight fight and anything can happen.”

The criticism has not been directed towards Silva, who is only bravely doing his job, but towards Glory, for booking something like a human sacrifice.

“As soon as we received the offer, everyone was in favor of it, said Silva. “My manager, Alex Davis, said it was a good fight because he knows me and knows I can go there and put on a good fight. Everyone supported me because the impossible doesn’t exist. If you go in there thinking that you can’t do it, that he’s the No. 1, or if you go there for the money, you already lost. I don’t think like that. I’m not going there for money or media, I’m going there because I know I can put on a good fight.”

“I went five rounds with Mark Hunt, and we stood and fought for 22 minutes. I knocked out Overeem, a K-1 champion. Every athlete has to be versatile. I started in karate, but I always trained everything. Not having to worry about getting taken down or being pressed against the cage makes the camp and the actual fight easier.”

“I’m a professional athlete for years and I like to try new things, new challenges. I feel like an amateur going for his first fight, trying to show what he can do, and God willing everything will be alright.

“Rico is … the best heavyweight kickboxer in the world. I’m an amateur, it’s my first kickboxing fight, and I want to show what I can do. I have nothing to prove, I have no responsibility. Rico has the responsibility, he’s the champion. The pressure is on him.”

Silva also compared the bout to Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor, but did concede that although he wants Notorious to win, his money is on Money. He also told Cruz he is getting paid much more recently than he was in the UFC. And there is one last factor in his favor – TRT.

While Therapeutic Use Exemptions for TRT have been ended in mixed martial arts, there are a tiny number of athletes worldwide that legitimately need them. In 2014, Silva’s manager Alex Davis explained that Bigfoot’s case is a medical necessity.

This is one of the guys that really have authentic technical reasons to be on TRT, explained Davis at the time. He has acromegaly. His pituitary gland overproduces GH [growth hormone] and that unbalances all his other hormones. When I started managing him, he was actually lactating. He has extreme low testosterone. He has extremely low testosterone, so he has a real reason to be on TRT.

The fighter himself explained.

“My case is not for muscular gain or to enhance performance, but for health issues, he said Silva. “I really need this in my life to be physically and mentally well. I’ve fought in the UFC when my testosterone levels were at 77 three weeks before the fight. That’s the level of a 90-year-old man. My levels were always low, 300, when someone at my age would be 800. I have doctors following me, making sure my levels are always at the normal range.