Wanderlei Silva was knocked out during a brawl after a boxing exhibition over the weekend, sending the Hall of Famer to the hospital.
The 49-year-old Silva engaged in a boxing exhibition on Saturday for Spaten Fight League in Brazil. Original opponent, Vitor Belfort, was replaced by Acelino Freitas.
Freitas, 50, is a former WBO super featherweight champion and held the WBO lightweight title. and retired with a record of 41-2. He began taking exhibition fights three years ago and was 5-0-1 coming into Saturday’s bout.
Silva outweighed his opponent by 44 pounds at weigh-ins, and the fight turned into a mess due to repeated fouls by the former UFC and PRIDE star.
The referee disqualified Silva in the fourth round after repeated fouls, including headbutts.
CHAOS. Brawl in the ring and Wanderlei gets sparked out cold pic.twitter.com/SWtu4LC7pN
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) September 28, 2025
A post-fight brawl ensued, with the ring being stormed by members of each team, including Fabricio Werdum. Freitas’s son, Rafael, landed a clean punch on Silva and knocked him out cold on the canvas.
An update was posted on Sunday that Silva suffered a broken nose and received stitches at the hospital. The former MMA fighter said he was suffering “a lot of dizziness and a headache that won’t go away” with his right eye completely swollen shut.
Freitas posted the following statement after the fight:
When the fight ended, the referee disqualified Wanderlei for the three head-butts he hit me, and his coach went after me and punched me; he really hurt me. Wanderlei, the fight was between you and me and had nothing to do with the team. If you head-butted me, cool, I don’t care. But, unfortunately, Werdum cowardly entered the ring with your son and went all over everybody. And I saw that someone also punched you.
“We tried delivering you a perfect [show] and I end up beat by his coach out of nowhere, man. … Another guy tried to rear-naked choke me, almost chokes me out. … I’d like to apologize to Ambev and Spaten. But I’m telling you, we had no fault. Cowardly, it was his team. And I don’t know why they put Werdum in this event. This guy only does s*** in other people’s events. Werdum, be ashamed. If I were you, I’d be ashamed. There’s video of you all over me, trying to hit me.” (Transcribed by Uncrowned)
Silva’s MMA career began almost thirty years ago in 1996, and he became one of the most violent knockout artists of his generation. He held the PRIDE middleweight championship from 2001 until 2006.
He joined the UFC in 2007, following the dissolution of PRIDE, and immediately became a fan favorite despite a 3-5 record in the promotion.
Silva returned in 2017 to compete with Bellator and suffered losses to Chael Sonnen and Quinton Jackson.
During the UFC antitrust case, Silva recorded a testimonial where he stated he was fearful he had CTE and experienced symptoms including depression, mood swings, and irritability.
