An all-time great returns on Halloween – a date befitting of a “Spider.”
Former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva (34-10 MMA, 17-6 UFC) is back later this month to take on Uriah Hall (15-9 MMA, 8-7 UFC) in the UFC on ESPN+ 39 main event, and the promotion has released the card’s official poster.
UFC on ESPN+ 39 takes place Oct. 31 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The card streams on ESPN+.
Check out the official poster for the event below (via Twitter):
A dance with the Spider
@UriahHallMMA vs @SpiderAnderson
Your #UFCVegas12 poster has dropped! pic.twitter.com/EJLyvy17Ik
— UFC (@ufc) October 13, 2020
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 2017, 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.
The latest UFC on ESPN+ 39 lineup includes:
- Uriah Hall vs. Anderson Silva
- Dustin Jacoby vs. Justin Ledet
- Maurice Greene vs. Greg Hardy
- Amir Albazi vs. Raulian Paiva
- Cortney Casey vs. Priscila Cachoeira
- Chris Gruetzemacher vs. Alexander Hernandez
- Aaron Phillips vs. Adrian Yanez
- Sean Strickland vs. opponent TBA
- Krzysztof Jotko vs. Makhmud Muradov
- Andre Fili vs. Bryce Mitchell
- Miles Johns vs. Kevin Natividad
- Bobby Green vs. Thiago Moises
- Cole Williams vs. Jason Witt
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