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After Antonio Silva absolutely mauled legendary Russian heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko in February 2011 in the first round of the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix, it looked like the sky was the limit.
The next big star?
Unfortunately, for him at least, that wasn't the case. That's because he was systematically decimated by Daniel Cormier, left knocked out wondering what went wrong.
He still made the jump to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) when the heavyweight division dissolved and was given a big opportunity when his debut bout was set against Cain Velasquez a former champion of the weight class and one of the best in the world.
And he turned that "Bigfoot" fight into a snuff film, opening up the Brazil with a few cuts and pounding him out inside one round.
Now that he's rebounded from those two crushing defeats by knocking out Travis Browne in the main event of UFC on FX 5 last night (Oct. 5, 2012) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Silva has his sights set on a rematch. Not with Cormier but with Velasquez.
"I don't want to challenge some opponents. I want to fight who the UFC wants me to. I want to fight Cain Velasquez again because this fight went very fast, he cut my head. I need one more opportunity to fight him (in a rematch) one day."
Sounds like he thinks the cut turned the tide and there was no coming back from it. Perhaps that's true but it's unlikely we'll find out anytime soon because a rematch is highly unlikely. Velasquez is currently scheduled to challenge Junior dos Santos for the title at UFC 155 on Dec. 29 in Las Vegas.
So if "Bigfoot" can't have his way, who should he fight next?