[1] He cited as influences Jet Li and Jackie Chan, the latter being star of his favorite movies, Rumble in the Bronx and Rush Hour.

In the 2004 Olympics, Diogo defeated the Venezuelan Luis Alberto García with a 6 a 5 and in the second round lost to the Iranian Hadi Saei with 8 a 6 in pay-off won the Italian Carlo Molfetta and the Guatemalan Gabriel Sagastume, in the bronze dispute Diogo lost to the South-Korean Song Myeong-Seob with a 12 a 7 score, staying in fourth place.

Diogo Silva won two Pan American Games medals, bronze in Santo Domingo 2003 Gold in Rio de Janeiro 2007.

At the repechage, Silva defeated Italian Carlo Molfetta and Gabriel Sagastume of Guatemala, but was beaten by South Korean Song Myeong-Seob in the bronze medal match.

[4] At the Bronze match, Silva brought with him a Black Panthers glove, because he wanted to protest against the lack of support for his sport in Brazil.