Anderson Silva vs. Michael Bisping booked for UFC Fight Pass main event in London

Christmas came early for fight fans when an exciting match up was announced earlier today by UFC officials. The world’s leading mixed martial arts promotion has confirmed that a fight between former 10-time defending middleweight champion Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva (33-6) and 24-fight UFC vet Michael ‘The Count’ Bisping (27-7) has been booked for five rounds. The fight will headline UFC Fight Night 84 in London on February 27th and will air exclusively on UFC Fight Pass. Bisping was originally scheduled to take on Gegard Mousasi (37-6-2) who will remain on the card in the co-main event slot. A search for a new opponent for Mousasi is currently underway.

After suffering a broken fibula and tibia in his 2nd defeat to now former middleweight champ Chris Weidman to close out 2013, the worst year of his career, a fully recovered Silva looked to bounce back in 2015. He’d defeat Nick Diaz via unanimous decision at UFC 183 in an entertaining fight between two of the sports biggest starts that left fans wanting more. Following the fight, we learned that both fighters had failed their respective drug tests. The fight would be overturned into a no contest and both men would be dealt serious suspensions; Silva’s for one year and Diaz’s for an unprecedented five years. Now, heading into his 41st year on this planet, Silva will try to get his first true victory since beating Stephan Bonnar back at UFC 153 when he takes on Bisping.

Since that fall night in 2012 when Silva still looked extremely unbeatable, Bisping has continued to do what he does best – work. Bisping is currently tied with Hall of Famer Randy Couture for the fourth most fights in UFC history and none will be more important than this one. If Bisping can extend his winning streak to 3 with a win over arguably the most legendary fighter the sport has ever seen he could finally earn the title shot that has eluded him for so many years.

Here is the full fight card for UFC Fight Night 84 ‘Silva vs. Bisping’ as it stands today:

Middleweight Main Event
Anderson Silva (33-6) vs. Michael Bisping (27-7)

Middleweight Bout
Gegard Mousasi (37-6-2) vs. TBA

Featherweight Bout
Makwan Amirkhani (12-2) vs. Mike Wilkinson (9-1)

Lightweight Bout
Rustam Khabilov (17-3) vs. Norman Parke (21-4-1)

Bantamweight Bout
Brad Pickett (24-11) vs. Henry Briones (16-5-1)

Welterweight Bout
Ken Nakamura (31-6-2) vs. Tom Breese (9-0)

Bantamweight Bout
Davey Grant (9-2) vs. Marlon Vera (7-2-1)

Featherweight Bout
Arnold Allen (10-1) vs. Yaotzin Meza (21-10)

Middleweight Bout
Brad Scott (10-3) vs. Krzysztof Jotko (16-1)

Middleweight Bout
Scott Askham (13-2) vs. Chris Dempsey (11-3)

Lightweight Bout
Teemu Packalen (7-1) vs. Lukasz Sajewski (13-1)

Lightweight Bout
David Teymur (3-1) vs. Martin Svensson (14-5)

Heavyweight Bout
Daniel Omielanczuk (17-5-1) vs. Jarjis Danho (6-0)

Light Heavyweight Bout
Nikita Krylov (19-4) vs. Jimi Manuwa (15-2)