Radley Da Silva almost stepped away before he even really got going.
The son of Andre da Silva, a well known capoeira practitioner and pro MMA fighter, da Silva (7-1) has all the time had combat sports in his blood. But he never really viewed it as a viable profession path.
So when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and fights became even harder to seek out, da Silva was on the verge of hanging up the gloves with a 2-1 record.
“For thus a few years, I used to be not fighting,” da Silva recently told MMA Junkie. “I attribute that quite a bit to attempting to force the problem. I’ve been training my whole entire life and I attempted all the pieces to get in there and stay lively and do all that. But for whatever reason, life wasn’t letting that occur. But I just form of let go of attempting to force the problem and trying to simply float of it.”
And boy does da Silva “flow.”
With capoeira in his DNA, da Silva has made it a mission to dispel misconceptions in regards to the striking art. Not only is it pretty to look at, da Silva wants to indicate you only how effective it could actually be.
Take a peek at how his profession has gone since he returned from hiatus in October 2023 and also you’ll get a feel for what he’s selling. He’s won five fights since his return (and 6 in a row overall), captured Battlefield Fight League (BFL) gold and gone viral for an insane spinning wheel kick knockout. Shoutout, capoeira.
“Capoeira has given me all the pieces in my life,” da Silva said. “If it wasn’t for capoeira, my whole family could be stuck in Brazil. We wouldn’t have the awesome life we do have here in Canada. I used to be raised here since I used to be five. I actually have all that to thank because capoeira brought us here to Canada. It’s all the time meant quite a bit because people sometimes dismiss the effectiveness of it within the cage and all that stuff, and as a martial art. They call it a dance and all that stuff. It’s been all the pieces. One in every of the major points of our group is to prove that it’s a viable martial art within the cage and against another martial art. That’s been something that was in-rooted in my brain since I used to be a child. We got the most effective martial arts and the most effective bases for MMA and I just desired to prove that since I used to be a child.”
Oh my GOD. Spinning heel kick KO by Radley Da Silva at BFL #BFL81 pic.twitter.com/XG3uIVMfmG
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) September 7, 2024
What higher and greater stage for da Silva to indicate the world what capoeira has to supply than the UFC. That’s the major goal in the mean time, though da Silva has gotten feedback that he still needs one other fight or two despite his recent success.
Regardless, da Silva thinks he has what it takes to not only reach the largest organization in MMA, but additionally thrive there.
“I would like UFC,” da Silva said. “It’s been a dream for me. I’ve watched Forrest Griffin-Stephan Bonnar live with my dad on TV. I didn’t even think it was a profession. I just thought it was just something I used to be going to do. Growing up watching… my dad, represent capoeira in MMA, I just thought it was something I used to be going to do. I never thought it might be a profession. I all the time desired to fight within the UFC, not even for money. Simply because I desired to represent capoeira at the very best level. That’s a dream of mine that I’d want to meet.”
