At a rare media scrum this past month, UFC President Dana White hinted a high-profile fight might be added to UFC 208.
Today, he pulled back the curtain to announce Anderson Silva (33-8 MMA, 16-4 UFC) vs. Derek Brunson (16-4 MMA, 7-2 UFC) for the Feb. 11 event at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
It’s not clear where Silva and Brunson fit on the fight card, but their inclusion undoubtedly gives UFC 208 a much-needed boost in star power. The event originally was supposed to be headlined by a featherweight title unifier between champ Jose Aldo and interim champ Max Holloway, but a foot injury to the latter scrapped the possibility. Invicta FC champ and UFC catchweight attraction Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino turned down an offer for the inaugural UFC women’s featherweight title, leaving the promotion to book two bantamweights, ex-champ Holly Holm and Germaine de Randamie, to step up in the main event.
Derek Brunson
Silva comes into the fight on a desperately long career slide, having lost four bouts with one overturned to multiple drug failures. The once-dominant champ, who holds the record for most consecutive title defenses at 10, hasn’t won a fight since stopping Stephan Bonnar at UFC 153 in 2012. Still, he’s the only proven draw on the pay-per-view card.
Recently, he called for a rematch with champ Michael Bisping, who outpointed him at UFC Fight Night 84 in a major upset. But the promotion had something else in mind.
Standing in the way of Silva’s career rebound is Brunson, whose recent career surge was stopped short in chaotic fashion. He took on Robert Whittaker this past November at UFC Fight Night 101 and almost finished the fight early before running straight into a counter that led to a TKO and snapped a five-fight winning streak.
Brunson, the No. 9 fighter in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA middleweight rankings, has a big-time chance to rebound from that outing and revive his stock in the division, while honorable mention Silva perhaps gets one last chance to prove he can compete in the UFC.
With the addition to the card, UFC 208 now includes:
- Holly Holm vs. Germaine de Randamie for inaugural women’s featherweight title
- Derek Brunson vs. Anderson Silva
- Jared Cannonier vs. Glover Teixeira
- Travis Browne vs. Derrick Lewis
- Ian McCall vs. Neil Seery
- Roan Carneiro vs. Ryan LaFlare
- Randy Brown vs. George Sullivan
- Luis Henrique vs. Marcin Tybura
- Nik Lentz vs. Islam Makhachev
- Wilson Reis vs. Ulka Sasaki
- Jim Miller vs. Dustin Poirier
- Gilbert Burns vs. Paul Felder
- Rick Glenn vs. Phillipe Nover
- Tim Boetsch vs. Ronaldo Souza
For more on UFC 208, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.
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