A third fight nobody wanted between a pair of UFC legends has been added to the undercard of the November event headlined by Jake Paul vs. Gervonta Davis.
While Paul has built a surprisingly successful career in boxing, it has always had strong links to mixed martial arts and the UFC. Nearly half of his fights have come against current or former MMA stars, including Nate Diaz, Mike Perry, and Tyron Woodley. And there are often fighters from the sport on the undercards of his events.
Well, he is continuing that trend on the card for his November circus clash against lightweight Gervonta Davis, with a fight that no MMA fan expected or wanted, featuring one of his former opponents.
On Thursday, Most Valuable Promotions announced that a boxing matchup between former UFC middleweight champions Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman has been added to the Nov. 14 event on Netflix.
Why we didn’t need Anderson Silva vs. Chris Weidman III
Weidman and Silva are two of the greatest UFC middleweights of all time, and, oddly enough, they will forever be linked. The Brazilian is the best 185-pounder ever after a dominant run as champion that included 10-straight title defenses between 2007 and 2012.
However, his legendary run came to an end when he faced “All American” as a heavy favorite at UFC 162 in July 2013. In a moment of stunning overconfidence, Silva dropped his hands and feigned being hurt. Then the power puncher clocked him with a nasty left hook that dropped him and ended a historic era.
They faced off in a rematch five months later. However, the bout ended early in the second round when Silva infamously broke his leg on a checked kick by his opponent. Both of their careers quickly fell off after their two-match series.
Silva lost five of his next seven, failed a drug test, and chose to jump to boxing in 2021. His June 2024 bout with long-time rival Chael Sonnen was supposed to be his retirement from fight sports. But clearly, the draw of one more solid payday has brought the 50-year-old back into action.
Weidman lost eight of his last eleven before retiring from the UFC earlier this year. He has never competed in boxing and was never viewed as an elite striker, even at the peak of his MMA career. The booking is an odd matchup between two fighters badly past their prime, and in a sport they weren’t legends in.
