Sporting legend looks unrecognisable as 48-year-old shows off goatee to fans on his official Instagram page… but can you tell which star this is?

• A former sporting legend has shown off his new look to fans on social media 
• Can YOU guess which former MMA star is posing in the picture? 
• Anthony Joshua is the Emma Raducanu of boxing: Listen to why on The Hook 

A picture of a former UFC legend has gone viral as fans struggled to identify the retired star. 

The UFC Hall of Fame inductee took to his official Instagram page to show off his new look – with the ex-MMA star now rocking a goatee.

Former two-division champion Conor McGregor commented on the post: ‘Living legend!’ 

The Brazilian is highly regarded as one of the best fighters to ever step foot inside the Octagon. 

After 14 years with MMA’s biggest promotion, he decided to retire from the sport in 2020 – but has since gone on to compete in the boxing ring. 

A former MMA icon looked unrecognisable in a picture he shared onto social media

The individual is none other than former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva

The mystery former UFC man is, of course, Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva. 

He captioned the post: ‘My uncle used to tell me: ‘Work impoverishes a man; We continue here, on this productive day, with a lot of work, a lot of creation and good people. Have a great Friday my people!’ 

The image of Silva went viral as many struggled to identify the former middleweight champion.

Silva joined MMA’s biggest promotion back in 2006 after successful spells in Pride and Cage Rage. He made his UFC debut against Chris Leben – winning via first-round KO. 

In his next fight, the 48-year-old would go on to defeat Rich Franklin in the first-round to become the middleweight champion. 

He would go on to defend the title 10 times – beating the likes of Dan Henderson, Demian Maia, Chael Sonnen and Vitor Belfort – before losing the title to Chris Weidman in 2013.

After losing to Weidman, the Brazilian went 1-6-1, and retired from the sport in 2020 after suffering a knockout defeat to Uriah Hall.

Despite retiring from MMA in 2020, Silva would step foot inside the boxing ring a year later – beating Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

Silva spent 14 years with the UFC and will go down as one of the best to ever grace the Octagon

Despite retiring from MMA in 2020, Silva would step foot inside the boxing ring and even fought Jake Paul

His last fight in boxing took place last year – where ‘The Spider’ would go on to lose via unanimous decision against YouTube star-turned-boxer Jake Paul. 

Back in June, Silva revealed that he is targeting one more fight in the cage before he calls it a day.

Speaking to MMA Fighting, the Brazilian said: ‘I’m now focused on these two projects and pretty soon we’ll have something nice regarding fighting. 

‘We’re in talks with Japan for a possible last MMA fight in Japan. It makes all the sense. I started my career internationally there, so we probably want to it end there, too. Let’s see if that happens.’ 

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