We have not seen the last of The Spider, Anderson Silva.
The Details
Per Dana White, Anderson Silva will return to the octagon on May 11th against Jared Cannonier at UFC 237, which will take place in Curitiba, Brazil, Silva’s home country.
The fight will come just three months after Silva’s unanimous decision defeat to Israel Adesanya in the main event of UFC 234, which took place on February 9th.
Love for The Spider
Silva managed to re-win the hearts of many through his beautiful bout with Adesanya. It was one of the most exciting fights the fans have seen in a long time. The phrase “old Anderson facing new Anderson” was one that was beat to death in the lead-up to the fight, but when the two were standing across from each other inside the octagon, it all made sense. It was poetry in motion for 15-minutes.
The fight between Silva and Adesanya was originally the co-main event of UFC 234, but when middleweight champion Robert Whittaker withdrew from his title defense against Kelvin Gastelum just hours before the fight was supposed to take place due to a hernia, Spider vs. Stylebender was bumped up to the main event.
Jared Cannonier?
The fight against Cannonier in May will be Anderson’s first bout in Brazil since his beatdown of Stephan Bonnar in October, 2012.
A little bit about Jared Cannonier, “The Killa Gorilla” made his middleweight debut back in November, where he made a statement by upsetting veteran David Branch, winning via TKO.
Frankly, it is amazing that Cannonier can cut down to 185 pounds. The guy used to fight at heavyweight….. yeah, heavyweight. He’s gone from heavyweight to middleweight in under three years, and he’s only seen improvement in his game. Clearly, his hard work has paid off, as he’s gone from the bottom of the big guys to fighting one of the greatest mixed martial artists to ever walk this earth.
Well, this is great news. GSP is announcing his retirement soon, the lightweight division is in limbo, Roy Nelson shaved his beard for crying out loud! What a day it’s been in the MMA community.
Here’s to a great weekend of fights in Prague and all around the world!
