Filed under: UFC
Wanderlei Silva will make his return to the Octagon on November 19 in San Jose, when he takes on former Strikeforce middleweight champion Cung Le at UFC 139.
UFC President Dana White announced today that Vitor Belfort had to pull out of his fight with Le because of an injury, and as a result Silva will step in and take it.
Although the fight was only booked because of Belfort’s injury, Silva vs. Le is actually a better fight all around than Belfort vs. Le. It should be a better draw for the UFC because Silva is such a fan favorite, and it should be a more competitive fight because, frankly, Belfort was probably going to put Le to sleep. Silva has a chance to do that, too, but he also has a chance of being put to sleep himself.
No matter who gets knocked out, Silva and Le promise to put on a highly entertaining fight. They’re too of the most exciting strikers in the middleweight division, and two guys who rarely if ever put on a sub-par performance: Win or lose, Silva and Le both deliver.
UFC 139 will be headlined by the return of Dan Henderson, who will fight Shogun Rua, and will also feature Brian Bowles vs. Urijah Faber, Jason Brilz vs. Ryan Bader, Kyle Kingsbury vs. Stephan Bonnar and Martin Kampmann vs. Rick Story.