A welterweight bout between former UFC contender Jon Fitch (23-4-1, 1NC) and Brazilian Erick ‘Índio’ Silva (14-2, 1NC) looks all but set for this October’s upcoming UFC 153 event.
MMAFighting.com reporter Ariel Helwani announced the bout on Monday night after confirming both fighters had verbally agreed to pay-per-view event.
UFC 153 is expected to occur on October 13, 2012 at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and will be headlined by a featherweight title match between champ Jose Aldo versus challenger Erik Koch.
Fitch had been expected to meet Aaron Simpson earlier this month as part of the UFC on FUEL TV 4 event but was forced off the card due to a knee injury. Fitch has had a bit of a bump in his career going 0-1-1 in his last two matches. He was subsequently knocked out by Johny Hendricks in 12-seconds at UFC 141 last December, ending a six fight undefeated streak for the former contender. The draw came in February 2011 with a “Majority Draw” decision against BJ Penn at UFC 127. Fitch had his lasat victory in August 2010 at UFC 117 when he beat Thiago Alves by decision.
Silva is 2-1 in the Octagon, having earned a “Submission of the Night” bonus for his first round submission of Charlie Brenneman at UFC on FX 3 last June. Before that match, Silva suffered a disqualification loss to Carlo Prater at UFC 142 in Brazil. Replays showed that Silva’s punches were in fact not hitting the back of Prater’s head but the referee’s decision was already made. Silva did though, receive his win bonus as he was dominating Prater in the opening minute of the bout before the stoppage. The Brazilian debuted at UFC 134 just over a year ago, stopping country man Luis Ramos by knockout in just 40-seconds.