EliteXC: Antonio ‘Big Foot’ Silva vs. Ricco Rodriguez to fight at ‘Street Certified’
By: James Iannotti
EliteXC: “Street Certified” at the BankUnited Center at the University of Miami on February 16 in Miami, Fla., featuring the main event fight between Kimbo Slice and Tank Abbott, just got a bit more interesting.
Former UFC heavyweight champion Ricco “Suave” Rodriguez (27-7) will take on Antonio “Big Foot” Silva (9-1), according to ProElite.com, in a match up that could decide the best heavyweight in the EliteXC organization.
Silva — who is also the Cage Rage heavyweight champion — most recently defeated Jonathan Wiezorek via rear naked choke in the first round. He has been real impressive throughout his Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) career, ending all nine of his fights in the first round. His lone loss was a questionable stoppage to Eric Pele in a Bodog event in December 2006.
EliteXC Live Events President Gary Shaw is high on the Brazilian, going as far to say recently that he is the best in the world.
Here’s the snip:
“I believe Silva is the No. 1 heavyweight in the world. If there is a UFC heavyweight or, for that matter, any heavyweight out there that feels they are the best then lets make a match. We can do the fight in an Octagon, in the EliteXC cage or any venue. I truly believe ‘Big Foot’ will kick any heavyweight’s butt and look forward to giving him the opportunity to do it.”
That opportunity is one that a veteran fighter like Ricco Rodriguez has no problem stepping up to take. He has fought some of the biggest names in the MMA heavyweight world such as Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria, Tim Sylvia, Jeff Monson, Andrei Arlovski and Randy Couture.
And he’s had success to some degree in most of those contests sans the knockout loss to Sylvia.
However, even though he just turned 30 years old there are a lot of miles on his odometer. He has struggled with his weight and substance abuse issues for the past few years. In fact, he will appear on VH-1’s “Celebrity Rehab” in the coming weeks.
The experience appears to have Rodriguez heading in the right direction, however. He recently put up a decent fight (on super short notice) against the IFL’s top heavyweight, Ben Rothwell, albeit in a losing effort at 2007 Team Championship Final. He rebounded from that defeat to pick up a technical knockout win over Kevin Filal less than three months later.
Regardless, this is definitely a great opportunity for Rodriguez and a fight in which he will not be intimidated. It’s also a great chance for Silva to get a win over a notable “big” name opponent.
No pun intended.
16 Comments »
Gary Shaw is a retard, but that’s for another day.
This is actually a nice fight. Ricco did look OK against Big Ben and he was literally right out of “rehab.” If he gets back to training and is focused he could be a big problem for Silva.
He’s certainly better on the feet and his BJJ is no joke. I doubt he’ll get tapped. If his cardio is good I think Ricco actually takes this.
Weird.
Very interesting match up, looking forward to this one. Turning out to be a good card.
Giant Silva is about as slow as Gary Shaw is in the head.
ricco will still probally beat randys ass.
i like this fight, i want to see ricco succeed again
zzzzzzzz
All Shaw is doing is trying to goad Dana into cross promoting so he cash in on the UFC’s success. Dana’s not going to fall for it. Will there ever be cross promotion? Yes, there will, but the other organization has to be on the same level or real close to the UFC because Dana is not lifting any of them up. Look when Pride was in its hey day, the UFC was always trying to get cross promotion match ups so that’s not the issue. The issue is Shaws fighters are not on the UFC fighters level so Dana isn’t going to waste his time. I mean come on, who’s there biggest named fighter, Kimbo Slice? Are you serious? I He wouldn’t last two rounds with Chiek Kongo
Sorry to break it to you all but Ricco withdrew from that fight.
His replacement is that English weirdo they call Smiley (cuz he has that cheesy smile all the time). Somebody, hlep me out I cant think of smiley’s real name.
Ricco is definetly not fighting Antonio Silva
[quote comment=”276574″]Sorry to break it to you all but Ricco withdrew from that fight.
His replacement is that English weirdo they call Smiley (cuz he has that cheesy smile all the time). Somebody, hlep me out I cant think of smiley’s real name.
Ricco is definetly not fighting Antonio Silva[/quote]
Source? It’s still on the ProElite homepage.
[quote comment=”276169″]Giant Silva is about as slow as Gary Shaw is in the head.[/quote]
ehrr, this is not giant silva, giant silva is a freak that used to fight in some pride cards to raise their ratings back in the days. Antonio Silva is actually really good, search for a few of his fights and you’ll see he is not slow at all.
…whatever
[quote comment=”276652″][quote comment=”276169″]Giant Silva is about as slow as Gary Shaw is in the head.[/quote]
ehrr, this is not giant silva, giant silva is a freak that used to fight in some pride cards to raise their ratings back in the days. Antonio Silva is actually really good, search for a few of his fights and you’ll see he is not slow at all.[/quote]
Correct, this is Antonio “Big Foot” Silva. He fought most of his fights at Super Heavy Weight, but his last fight in EliteXC, he cut down to the 265lb limit.
[quote comment=”276169″]Giant Silva is about as slow as Gary Shaw is in the head.[/quote]
Probably, but Big Foot Silva is actually quite agile considering his size. Just look at the size of his head, and he ain’t even all that tall. When I first saw him fight, he was 100 times faster than I was expecting. His hammer fists are just ridiculous. Its like he’s swinging giant sledge hammers.
Speaking of hammer fists, how do you guys feel about the stoppage of the Sakara/James Lee fight?
[quote comment=”276602″][quote comment=”276574″]Sorry to break it to you all but Ricco withdrew from that fight.
His replacement is that English weirdo they call Smiley (cuz he has that cheesy smile all the time). Somebody, hlep me out I cant think of smiley’s real name.
Ricco is definetly not fighting Antonio Silva[/quote]
Source? It’s still on the ProElite homepage.[/quote]
I read an entire article about it yesterday saying how Silva’s oponent was supposed to be Ricco, but he had to pull out and is being replaced with that dude who’s nickname is SMILEY(I am not familiar with him,). I forget which site it was on, but I will do the research and get back to you Mania.
[quote comment=”276692″][quote comment=”276602″][quote comment=”276574″]Sorry to break it to you all but Ricco withdrew from that fight.
His replacement is that English weirdo they call Smiley (cuz he has that cheesy smile all the time). Somebody, hlep me out I cant think of smiley’s real name.
Ricco is definetly not fighting Antonio Silva[/quote]
Source? It’s still on the ProElite homepage.[/quote]
I read an entire article about it yesterday saying how Silva’s oponent was supposed to be Ricco, but he had to pull out and is being replaced with that dude who’s nickname is SMILEY(I am not familiar with him,). I forget which site it was on, but I will do the research and get back to you Mania.[/quote]
Good.