Anderson SIlva – Photo by Getty Images via Yahoo! Sports
It looks like UFC middleweight champion Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva (32-4) will in fact, save the day.
After offering to save the now cancelled UFC 151 event, Silva will headline next months UFC 153 event in his native Brazil and will meet TUF 1 finalist Stephan ‘The American Psycho’ Bonnar (14-7) in a light heavyweight match.
News of the match was first announced by USA Today late Wednesday night and then made official at UFC.com.
Already 2-0 in the UFC at light heavyweight, pound for pound king Anderson Silva will head 20 pounds north once more on Saturday, October 13 to meet former Ultimate Fighter finalist Stephan Bonnar in the new three-round main event of UFC 153 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.The news was broken by USA Today on Wednesday evening.
The announcement comes after a couple of key injuries crippled the Rio card after featherweight champ Jose Aldo was forced out of the main event versus Frankie Edgar due to a foot injury, and former champ Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson had to withdraw from his light heavyweight bout with Glover Teixeira with an elbow injury.
UFC 153: Silva vs. Bonnar is scheduled to take place on October 13, 2012 at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Silva had been looking at taking the rest of 2012 off following his second round TKO win over Chael Sonnen this past July at UFC 148, but ‘The Spider’ will return to action on a months notice. The Brazilian has won sixteen straight matches, including a record ten straight middleweight title defenses.
Bonnar had been hinting at possible retirement but a chance to face Silva was apparently too much to pass up. The former ‘TUF 1′ finalist has won three straight matches but hasn’t been in action since November 2011. Bonnar earned a decision over Kyle Kingsbury at UFC 139, a decision versus Igor Pokrajac at the TUF 12 Finale, and a second round TKO stoppage against Krzysztof Soszynski.