The story following the cancellation of UFC 151 on Thursday just gets even more interesting as it turns out that UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva (32-4) apparently offered his services in order to save the September 1st pay-per-view event.
According to MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani, ‘The Spider’ had his manager Ed Soares contact UFC president Dana White about stepping in against light heavyweight champ Jon Jones on eight days notice.
Unfortunately for every mixed martial arts fan across the world, Soares came in a few hours late as White had already cancelled the entire UFC 151 event.
The middleweight champion, who admitted he wasn’t in the best shape, volunteered to fight on eight days’ notice in Las Vegas against another light heavyweight fighter. Unfortunately, he was a few hours late as the promotion had already decided to scrap the event.
White said he never expected Silva to offer his services and appreciated the offer.
Jones will now face former champ Vitor Belfort on Sept. 22 in the main event of UFC 152, with Belfort taking the fight last night after Lyoto Machida turned down the rematch due to a lack of time to prepare.