There was a day when Matt Brown was considered a respected but limited journeyman. That’s not the case today.
There was a day when Erick Silva was considered an MMA phenom, a total package of a welterweight who could possibly contend for the belt. That’s not the case today.
A few years back, these two somehow got their trajectories switched up. Brown was suddenly knocking them down as fast as the UFC could set them up. A checkerboard of success and failure spread across Silva’s record sheet, braking the title talk before it could ever get rolling in earnest.
This Saturday at UFC Fight Night 40, their paths cross more literally. Both men are coming off wins, and both have battled injuries over the past year or so. It’s the first UFC main event for each man, and it will go down in Brown’s neck of the woods in Cincinnati, Ohio. The winner just might crack the top five of the UFC welterweight rankings and set aside some of those questions about why he’s on the list in the first place.
But there’s plenty more to talk about as the UFC rumbles back into the land of Joey Votto and cinnamon-flavored chili. At 13 bouts, it’s a pretty stuffed card. Here are information capsules, predictions and viewing coordinates for every contest, from Fight Pass to finale.