Wanderlei Silva’s final MMA fight took place on this day in 2018 where a historic rivalry came to an end.
This past weekend, Silva was brutally knocked out in a wild brawl after he made his return to competition in a boxing contest.
Fans had raised concerns about the idea of the 49-year-old legend making any kind of comeback after not fighting for seven years.
Silva’s health updates from the hospital after the highly controversial scenes at Spaten Fight Night 2 in São Paulo have only brought these worries into reality.
On this day in 2018, it looked like we had seen the last of ‘The Axe Murderer’, after he was finished by his greatest rival in the conclusion of their epic saga.
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Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson stopped Wanderlei Silva at Bellator 206 to close out their rivalry
Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson admitted that Wanderlei Silva was feared by his fellow fighters during his incredible run in Pride.
The two men collided on two occasions in Japan, where the Brazilian emerged victorious via knockout in both of their meetings.
When they faced off several years later in the UFC, ‘Rampage’ got some revenge, with Jackson naming this his favorite knockout that he produced in his career.
Both men were far past their primes by 2018, when a fourth fight between them was booked a decade after their UFC 92 trilogy.
This time around, they met in Bellator, where Jackson tied the score at two knockout wins each, dropping Silva in the second round and raining down punches to force the referee stoppage.
It would be several years before Silva would officially announce his retirement from MMA, though he didn’t fight again after this loss.
‘Rampage’, on the other hand, competed one more time, where he was stopped by Fedor Emelianenko at Bellator 237 in Japan.
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Wanderlei Silva’s rivalry with Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson lives on to this day
The score may now be even between Wanderlei Silva and Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, but clearly, one of them wants to emerge as the clear winner of their feud.
Jackson, who was linked with several boxing matches last year, said that he wanted to move the Brazilian to the front of his list of opponents that he had lined up.
This was after Silva had claimed that he would “hang him on the ropes again” when responding to talks of a potential fifth meeting between them.
After the way that Silva’s fight at the weekend played out, and Jackson’s failed attempts to return to competition, it seems unlikely that a fifth chapter will ever play out.