It’s been more than a year since Anderson Silva stepped into a fight, but “The Spider” is set to return, perhaps appropriately, on Halloween.
Former longtime UFC middleweight champion Silva (34-10 MMA, 17-6 UFC) will take on Uriah Hall (15-9 MMA, 8-7 UFC) on the UFC’s Oct. 31 card. The bout is set to be the main event. A location and venue for the show have not yet been announced by the promotion.
MMA Junkie confirmed the booking with a person with knowledge of the matchup following an initial report by UFC broadcast partner ESPN, which cited UFC president Dana White.
Silva lost back-to-back fights in 2019 after a two-year layoff that included a suspension from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. He lost to current middleweight champion Israel Adesanya during Adesanya’s ascension to title contention, then was stopped with a first-round TKO by Jared Cannonier in May 2019.
Prior to that, Silva had a unanimous decision win over Derek Brunson in February 2011, which was his first victory since a win over Stephan Bonnar in October 2012. After the Bonnar win, he lost his title to Chris Weidman, then lost a rematch in which he suffered a gruesome leg break. Silva returned in January 2015 and beat Nick Diaz, but had the win overturned by a positive drug test. He then lost decisions to Michael Bisping and Daniel Cormier before his win over Brunson.
Hall has back-to-back wins after a rough stretch that saw him drop four of five fights – but all to top-shelf middleweights including Robert Whittaker on his run to the title, Brunson, Gegard Mousasi and Paulo Costa. In December 2018, he stopped Bevon Lewis with a third-round knockout. And in September 2019, he took a split call from Antonio Carlos Junior.
Hall was set to fight Ronaldo Souza in April, but had the fight scrapped due to COVID-19 postponements. They were rescheduled for May in Florida, but Souza tested positive for coronavirus and was pulled. Hall then booked a fight with Yoel Romero for this week, but Romero fell out with an injury. Instead, Hall gets arguably the highest-stature opponent of his career.
With the official addition, the UFC’s Oct. 31 card now includes:
- Anderson Silva vs. Uriah Hall
- Dustin Jacoby vs. Justin Ledet
- Amir Albazi vs. Raulian Paiva
- Maurice Greene vs. Greg Hardy