The difficulties brought about by the late start in the sport, such as the lack of technique and the basic fundamentals of judo, were overcome with a lot of training.

In 2005 Rafael already represented Brazil internationally, even though he had only been in the sport for 3 years, and in 2006 Silva competed in the World Judo Juniors Championships in Santo Domingo.

[7] In 2011, Silva competed in the Pan American Games for the first time, in Guadalajara, placing second in the Men's +100 kg category after losing the final to Cuban Oscar Bryson.

[16][17][18] At the 2013 Pan American Judo Championships, held in San Jose, Costa Rica, Silva became two-time champion of the Heavyweight category (+100 kg).

[22] At the 2014 Pan American Judo Championships, held in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Silva became three-time champion of the Heavyweight category (+100 kg).

[25][26] In April 2015, at the 2015 Pan American Judo Championships in Edmonton, he made a Brazilian final against David Moura, but was defeated, taking the silver medal.

[28][29] In 2016, Silva fought to recover from his injury and get back ahead of his compatriot David Moura to qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

[32] At the 2017 World Judo Championships held in Budapest, Hungary, Silva beat Ushangi Kokauri, from Azerbaijan, in his debut, by ippon.

[36] At the 2018 World Judo Championships held in Baku, Azerbaijan, Silva lost in the first round to the Japanese Hisayoshi Harasawa, Olympic runner-up at the Rio 2016 Games.

[41] At the 2019 World Judo Championships held in Tokyo, Japan, Silva reached the quarterfinals, losing to Japanese Hisayoshi Harasawa, the same way as in 2018.

[44] In 2020, he won the silver medal in the men's +100 kg event at the 2020 Pan American Judo Championships held in Guadalajara, Mexico.

[47][48] At the 2021 World Judo Championships held in Budapest, Hungary, Silva had the same performance as in 2019: he reached the semifinals, but was defeated twice in a row, by the Japanese Kokoro Kageura and in the bronze match by the Dutchman Roy Meyer, finishing 5th again.

[57] In May 2023, at the 2023 World Judo Championships held in Doha, Qatar, Silva became the oldest judoka in history to reach the podium of the competition.

Previously, he had defeated Ecuadorian Freddy Figueroa and German Losseni Kone, before falling to Uzbek Alisher Yusupov.

[58] At the 2023 Pan American-Oceania Judo Championships held in Calgary, Canada, Silva made a new final with Cuban Andy Granda, where he fought evenly but ended up taking 3 punishments and obtaining silver.

He was defeated three times in the same competition by world champion Andy Granda, which prevented Silva from winning gold medals in this event.