Akiyama Scratched; Silva v. Bisping At UFC 110

November 25, 2009, at 2:58 pm

This fight just got a whole lot more interesting.

Wanderlei Silva went from taking on a little known Japanese star to fighting Britain’s MMA poster boy in the span of a few short days.

From MMA Weekly:

Wanderlei Silva and Michael Bisping have verbally agreed to meet at UFC 110, MMAWeekly.com confirmed Tuesday evening with sources close to the fight.

The news was first reported Monday by Fighters Only.

UFC 110 is slated for Feb. 23 at Acer Arena in Sydney, Australia, though the event has yet to be confirmed by the promotion.

Until news of the match-up broke, Silva was originally expected headline the down under event with Yoshihiro Akiyama. The Japanese star’s fate is unknown at this time. Silva vs. Bisping is expected to be a co-main event.

Silva (32-10-1) last fought in January at UFC 93, losing a unanimous decision to Rich Franklin in a 195-pound catchweight fight. Silva disagreed with the call and said he would like to rematch the former middleweight champion down the line.

Following the fight, Silva underwent surgery to reduce scar tissue around his eyes and took the second half of 2009 off.

There are a ton of interesting story lines to talk about around this fight. Is Bisping completely back from his defeat at the hands of Dan Henderson? Will the knockout effect his chin long term? Speaking of chis, how will Wanderlei’s facial surgery effect his ability to take a punch? Will he have problems cutting down to his new weight class?

Most of all, Does Silva have anything left?

We’ll find out in Australia.