Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, Gabriel Gonzaga to collide in BKFC 8 main event

A pair of UFC veterans will headline the upcoming BKFC 8 card, as former title challengers Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva and Gabriel Gonzaga are set to collide.

The promotion announced this exciting news on social media on Wednesday afternoon.

BKFC 8 will emanate from the Florida State Fairgrounds Entertainment Hall in Tampa, Florida and will be available on pay-per-view on FITE.tv.

In his heyday, Bigfoot Silva was one of the best heavyweights in MMA. After a lengthy run in the Strikeforce heavyweight division, he migrated to the UFC where, after knockout wins over Travis Browne and Alistair Overeem, he eventually challenged Cain Velasquez for the heavyweight title.

In this lone UFC title fight, Silva was stopped in the first round. He then lost five of his next six fights in the Octagon, sandwiching a win over Soa Palelei between losses to Andrei Arlovski, Frank Mir, Mark Hunt, Stefan Struve and Roy Nelson. After his loss to Nelson, he was cut from the UFC.

In his post-UFC career, which unfolded in Russia, he was defeated by top-flight foes in Ivan Shtyrkov and former Bellator champ Vitaly Minakov. In that stretch, Bigfoot was also stopped by Rico Verhoeven in a Glory kickboxing bout. He will enter the BKFC 8 main event winless in combat sports since mid-2015.

Gabriel Gonzaga, one the other hand, has not fought since 2018, when he was stopped by Aleksander Emelianenko in Russia. In his next most recent bout, his last in the UFC, he was defeated by future title challenger Derrick Lewis. Prior to that, he defeated Konstantin Erokhin by decision in one of the most objectively terrible fights ever, and lost to Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, Matt Mitrione and Stipe Miocic.

Gonzaga fought for the UFC heavyweight title in 2007, losing to Randy Couture by TKO.

Who do you think will come out on top in the BKFC 8 main event?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 8/28/2019.