Timothy Deane Sylvia (born March 5, 1976) is an American professional mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter. He is a former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heavyweight champion. He trains as a member of the Miletich Fighting Systems (MFS) camp and is part of their MFSE (Miletich Fighting System Elite) group. He presently fights for Adrenaline MMA (previously known as M-1 Global)

He holds notable wins over Andrei Arlovski, Ben Rothwell, Mike Whitehead, Jason Lambert, Ricco Rodriguez, Gan McGee, Wes Sims, Tra Telligman, Assuerio Silva, Jeff Monson and Brandon Vera.



On February 2, 2008 Sylvia lost via guillotine choke to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 81 in Las Vegas, Nevada for the interim heavyweight championship. This was his last fight before departing from the UFC.

Adrenaline / Affliction On March 28, 2008, Sylvia signed with Adrenaline MMA, formerly M-1 Global, to a two-year contract that allows him to fight for other organizations while under contract with Adrenaline. A few weeks later he was offered to fight Fedor Emelianenko at Affliction Clothing's inaugural event Affliction: Banned for the newly created WAMMA Heavyweight Championship.

On Saturday, July 19th, the former UFC heavyweight champion finally met Fedor in the ring. Sylvia characteristically stalked his opponent, looking to take advantage of his immense reach with a few jabs, but Fedor responded immediately with a hard barrage of punches that put the big man on the mat. The nimble Russian immediately took Sylvia's back and secured the rear naked choke, forcing the tap at 0:36 of the first round.