Erick Silva reveals he retired because of a heart attack

In the nearly three years after his last MMA bout, Erick Silva has been on a long hiatus. No one will ever again see his confinement in the same way.

Brazilian news outlet Globo reports that Silva, 38, has retired. Silva claims he took the decision after experiencing a heart attack in 2019 that he attributes in part to a serious infection with COVID-19 in April of 2020.

“In June 2021, I had a heart attack,” Silva said, according to Google Translate. “I didn’t train for a year-and-a-half, and I went to train with Joilton Peregrino, and I put in a lot of effort. We did a five-round workout, and I started to feel a pain in my chest. This pain confused me a lot with muscle fatigue. I didn’t understand what was happening, so much so that I went home, played with my son in the pool despite the pain and only relieved it with breathing work. It relieved but didn’t stop. So I took the car and went to the hospital alone. There, we did the tests. My cardiac enzymes were very high, and I was hospitalized.

“I stayed in the ICU for a week, and my cardiologist said that it could probably have been a sequel of COVID-19, because a thrombus was found in the coronary artery, and that was preventing the flow of blood afterwards. I was still for a while, then I did my routine exams, and it was found that the anatomy of my heart was perfect. But that fact was a decisive point for me not to fight anymore.”

From 2011 to 2017, Silva (20-11) was a member of the UFC, where he competed a total of eight times and had a record of 7-8 during that time. Despite having a record that is below.500, Silva has secured the fourth-most submissions in the history of the welterweight division in the UFC and is tied for third place in the division in terms of fight night bonuses.

Following the conclusion of his UFC contract in December 2017, Silva moved on to compete for LFA once, defeating Nick Barnes by submission, before beginning a two-fight run with Bellator in 2019.

At Bellator 216, Silva was defeated by Yaroslav Amosov, who went on to win the 170-pound championship, through unanimous decision. At Bellator 223, Silva was defeated by Paul Daley via unanimous decision in his last fight.