The son of UFC legend Anderson Silva won his boxing debut in Brazil with an impressive fourth-round knockout.
Kalyl, 23, stopped his opponent Paulo dos Santos by landing a brutal left hook to the body followed by an overhand right which left him in a world of pain on the canvas. Dos Santos went down holding his stomach after the body shot and was unable to beat the referee's count, awarding Kalyl his first professional win in the ring.
"Pro debut started off with a bang! Fourth round knockout," he wrote. "Thank you to everyone that’s part of this journey with me. Forever thankful. On to the next." It was Kalyl's first fight since he lost a decision to Michael Mitchell in an amateur kickboxing bout that took place in September.
Before that fight, Kalyl won his kickboxing debut with the very first strike he threw against Anthony Reynaga in August. The son of the former longtime UFC middleweight king threw a head kick just eight seconds into the fight that floored Reynaga, with the referee instantly waving off the bout.
Kalyl had previously played as a forward for LA10, a pro-development football team in the US, but decided to cut his football career short by not renewing his contract with the side last year. The 23-year-old is focused on his career in combat sports and admits he will likely follow his father's footsteps by stepping in the cage.
“I’m training boxing, I’m training kickboxing,” he told MMA Fighting. “But my focus now is to continue in kickboxing and get some fights here, and then we’ll see what the plans are for the future. Right now, I’m focused on amateur kickboxing. I probably have plans for MMA in the future but right now, I don’t want to think long term, I want to think about what’s going on right now. I’m focused on kickboxing, and we’ll see what happens. It’s kind of hard to say where I’ll go in my career.”
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Forty-seven-year-old Silva suffered his first boxing defeat in over two decades when he was outpointed by Jake Paul in October. 'The Spider' was dropped in the final round of the fight as Paul won a unanimous decision in what was his toughest fight to date since ditching his internet fame for a career in the ring.
After spending 13 years fighting in the UFC, Silva parted ways with the promotion in 2020 after losing seven of his last eight fights in the cage. The Brazilian, who still holds the record for the longest title reign in UFC history, has picked up wins against Tito Ortiz and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr since transitioning to the ring.
