Melbourne is in for a treat. Israel Adesanya is set to fight former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva at UFC 234.
This fight, confirmed by ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, will see the UFC’s most promising middleweight prospect in Adesanya take on one of the most dominant champions in promotion history. And, of course, both Adesanya and Silva have a penchant for the exciting.
Both fighters’ last Octagon appearances were against Derek Brunson.
Silva, now 43 years old, snapped a five-fight winless run against Brunson back at UFC 208 in early 2017. The Adesanya fight will be Silva’s first since returning from a one-year USADA suspension.
Meanwhile, Adesanya is coming off a dominant first-round TKO win over Brunson at UFC 230 earlier in November.
The Nigerian-born New Zealander has an unbeaten record of 15-0 and has impressed on his 4-0 UFC run since switching to MMA from kickboxing full-time.
UFC 234 is scheduled for February 9th in Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena. A UFC middleweight title scrap between Robert Whittaker and Kelvin Gastelum is expected to be the card’s headline act.
