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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
While he was reportedly set to face Yoshihiro Akiyama in the UFC's first trek to Australia, Wanderlei Silva now appears to have a different opponent on tap for his first bout as a middleweight.
According to a report from the U.K. based Fighter's Only, Silva has verbally agreed to a bout with Michael Bisping for the event. The bout was supposed to take place at UFC 105, but Silva was unable to take the fight due to facial surgery he had undergone, and Bisping faced Denis Kang instead.
Bisping defeated Kang via TKO in the second round in Manchester, England, to rebound from the devastating knockout loss he suffered at the hands of Dan Henderson in July.
Silva will make his middleweight debut after a 1-2 stretch in the UFC's light heavyweight division and a loss to Rich Franklin at 195 lbs in June. He'll look to end a 1-5 overall skid in the bout with Bisping.
UFC 110 is set to air on pay-per-view from the Acer Arena in Sydney, Australia, on Sunday, February 21st. The Sunday event date would put the event on live in the U.S. that Saturday night, the 20th, with the time zone delay.
Penick's Analysis: This is the fight that the UFC was looking to put on this month at UFC 105, and they've decided to put it together for the Australia fans. Bisping's going to have to get past a very hard hitting striker in Wanderlei, but after his bout with Kang I'd give him a lot more respect coming into this bout than I would have coming off of the loss to Henderson. This should be a good fight for the 110 card and a solid draw for the Australian fans. Wanderlei is in desperate need of a win, but it will be a tough one to accomplish in this bout if Bisping fights like he did against Kang. That said, if Wanderlei clips him like Kang did in the first then he'll have a much tougher time holding on to get to the second round.
[Wanderlei Silva art credit Cory Gould (c) MMATorch]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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