Anderson Silva, left, seated beside Dana White following UFC Fight Night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Thursday, July 7, 2016, announces he will fight Daniel Cormier at UFC 200.
Thursday, July 7, 2016 | 8:48 p.m.
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Daniel Cormier saw a bout with one of the two consensus best fighters in UFC history crumble only for a bout with the other to coalesce.
Anderson Silva will fill in for Jon Jones, who was pulled from the planned UFC 200 main event for a failed anti-doping test, and face Cormier on Saturday night’s pay-per-view at T-Mobile Arena as Brazilian outlet Globo first reported.
Silva was the top-ranked pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC for years until Chris Weidman upset him at the headlining bout of International Fight Week 2012. Jones immediately assumed the top overall position, with Cormier emerging as his biggest threat.
Although Jones already defeated Cormier once, a rematch was anticipated when Cormier won the light heavyweight championship belt Jones vacated after a hit and run incident. Silva doesn’t bring the same stakes, but he’s one of the only fighters on the UFC roster with a profile on par with Jones'.
Silva technically hasn’t won a fight since October 2012, when he defeated Stephan Bonnar via TKO at UFC 153. A failed post-fight drug test turned a unanimous-decision victory over Nick Diaz at UFC 183 into a no contest.
Silva lost to current middleweight champion Michael Bisping earlier this year, and pulled out of a fight against Uriah Hall in May because he needed gallbladder surgery. But he’s healthy enough now to take a fight against the light heavyweight champion on less than two days notice.
Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.
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