The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is the largest Mixed Martial Arts promotion company in the world, which hosts most of the top-ranked fighters in the sport and produces events worldwide. Based in the United States, the UFC has eight weight divisions and enforces the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts.Dana White serves as the president of the UFC while Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta control the UFC's parent company, Zuffa, LLC.

The first UFC event was held in 1993 in Denver, Colorado. The purpose of the event was to identify the most effective martial art in a real fight between competitors of different fighting disciplines, including Boxing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Tae Kwon Do, Wrestling, Muay Thai, Karate and other styles. In subsequent competitions, fighters ventured outside their base style to utilize effective techniques from other disciplines, which indirectly helped create an entirely separate style of fighting known as present-day mixed martial arts.

With a cable-television deal and expansion into Canada, Europe, Australia the Middle East,Asia and new markets within the United States, the UFC as of 2011^[update] has gained in popularity, along with greater mainstream-media coverage. As of 2001^[update] viewers can access UFC programming on pay-per-view television in the U.S., Brazil, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Italy. UFC programming can also be found on FX, Fuel TV, and Fox in the U.S., on ESPN in the United Kingdom and Ireland, as well as in 150 countries and 22 different languages worldwide. UFC also carries a mobile site for on-the-go users and a Sports Bars page for fans to find places showing the pay-per-view. It is also available on the Roku streaming player.

Silva (da Silva) is a common surname in the Portuguese language, namely in Portugal, and Brazil; it is also widespread in regions of the former Portuguese Empire in Asia, including India and Sri Lanka. Da Silva is also the fifth most common surname in the French Département Val-de-Marne and it ranked 19th for the number of births between 1966 - 1990 in France.

Many people on this list are not generally known as Silva.