Despite last week’s murmurs that Anderson Silva wouldn’t be able to fight at UFC 198 due to a lack of opponents, Sherdog reports that Silva will get his hometown fight in Curitiba after all.
Remember when Anderson Silva didn’t have an opponent for him to fight at UFC 198 in his hometown of Curitiba? Well it looks like he actually does have someone to face on May 14th. A report from Sherdog says that “The Spider” is going to fight TUF 17 runner-up Uriah Hall, and the UFC is expected to finalize the announcement very shortly. The card takes place at Arena da Baixada, a 40,000+ seated soccer stadium.
Silva (33-7, 1 NC) is coming off a thrilling (if not bizarre) unanimous decision loss to Michael Bisping at UFC Fight Night in London last month. The two men traded knockdowns, with Silva believing his 3rd round flying knee signified the end of the fight. It was the former middleweight champ’s first bout since his suspension for PED use at UFC 183 vs. Nick Diaz. Officially, Anderson hasn’t won a fight since knocking out Stephan Bonnar in October 2012.
Hall (12-6) has had his ups and downs in the UFC since losing the TUF 17 Finale to Kelvin Gastelum in 2013. After losing a split decision to John Howard, Hall finally got his first UFC win by stopping Chris Leben at UFC 168. That started a three-fight winning streak for “Primetime”, until a lackluster split decision setback to Rafael Natal in May 2015 halted his success. Hall bounced back with a brutal knockout of Oluwale Bamgbose in August, then upset Gegard Mousasi on short-notice just 1 month later with a phenomenal spinning back kick and flying knee finish. The 31-year-old took yet another short-notice fight at UFC 193 against Robert Whittaker, but this time he walked away with a unanimous decision loss.
UFC 198 is headlined by a heavyweight title fight between Fabricio Werdum and Stipe Miocic. The co-main is a presumptive #1 contender bout at middleweight between Ronaldo Souza and Vitor Belfort. Also on the card are welterweight contenders Demian Maia and Matt Brown, as well as Antonio Rogerio Nogueira against Patrick Cummins, and Mauricio Rua vs. Corey Anderson.