Thiago Silva vs. Brandon Vera promoted to UFC 125 main card

Sakara=Excitement · 11-30-2010, 01:17 PM

Thiago Silva vs. Brandon Vera promoted to UFC 125 main card | MMAjunkie.com

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An intriguing light-heavyweight bout between Thiago Silva (14-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC) and Brandon Vera (11-5 MMA, 7-5 UFC) has been salvaged from untelevised purgatory.

Sources close to the event today told MMAjunkie.com (UFC blog for UFC news, UFC rumors, fighter interviews and event previews/recaps | MMAjunkie.com) the onetime preliminary-card bout has been promoted to the pay-per-view main card of "UFC 125: Resolution."

The event takes place Jan. 1 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and is headlined by UFC lightweight champ Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard.

Vera vs. Silva likely is taking the spot that opened when UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo was forced out of a UFC 125 co-headliner with Josh Grispi due to injury. Grispi now is slated to fight Dustin Poirier in a bout that today was made official for the preliminary card.

Sources today told MMAjunkie.com no decision has been made as to whether UFC 125 will get a "UFC Prelims" special on Spike TV. However, UFC president Dana White recently said the one-hour specials will return in 2011, and UFC 125 currently boasts a number of TV-worthy prelim fights, including Marcus Davis vs. Jeremy Stephens, Mike Brown vs. Diego Nunes, Phil Baroni vs. Brad Tavares, and Grispi vs. Poirier. However, even if a deal is reached, not all UFC events get the "UFC Prelims" specials.

Silva returns to the cage one day shy of a full year since his most recent outing, a UFC 108 loss to Rashad Evans in the evening's main event. Prior to that fight, rumors of an ankle injury spread throughout the MMA community, but Silva's camp confirmed after the contest that a back injury was partially to blame for the lackluster performance. Silva then was scheduled to face Tim Boetsch in August at UFC 117, but the former title contender re-injured his back and was forced to withdraw from the event.

Despite opening his UFC career with four consecutive stoppage victories, Silva is just 1-2 in his past three contests. Due to various periods of inactivity, Silva has registered just one UFC win in the past 27 months.

Meanwhile, Vera fights for the first time since a March loss to fast-rising prospect Jon Jones. "The Truth" was overwhelmed in the contest and suffered multiple facial fractures in the three-minute affair. Once considered a top prospect in both the heavyweight and light-heavyweight divisions, Vera now is stuck in a two-fight slump and is just 3-5 since December 2006.

Both competitors now are fighting for relevancy in a pivotal bout for their career prospects.

The latest UFC 125 card now includes:

MAIN CARD
Champ Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard (for lightweight title)
Chris Leben vs. Brian Stann
Thiago Silva vs. Brandon Vera
Nate Diaz vs. Dong Hyun Kim
Takanori Gomi vs. Clay Guida

PRELIMINARY CARD
Marcus Davis vs. Jeremy Stephens
Josh Grispi vs. Dustin Poirier
Phil Baroni vs. Brad Tavares
Mike Brown vs. Diego Nunes
Daniel Roberts vs. Greg Soto
Antonio McKee vs. Jacob Volkmann

Leucoethiops · 11-30-2010, 01:32 PM

Almost every fight on this card is more interesting to me than the title fight.

iced · 11-30-2010, 01:35 PM

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Originally Posted by Leucoethiops

Almost every fight on this card is more interesting to me than the title fight.

yup, kinda sad that even the pre lims are!

Jaydo06 · 11-30-2010, 01:39 PM

Bah I wasn't planning on ordering this PPV and was hoping this fight would just be on the Spike TV card. Balls.

Masscore · 11-30-2010, 01:52 PM

I almost feel bad for Vera for the beating that Thiago Silva is going to put on him... almost.

CHAEL fan · 11-30-2010, 02:12 PM

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Originally Posted by Masscore

I almost feel bad for Vera for the beating that Thiago Silva is going to put on him... almost.

I can't wait to see the throat slash afterwards.

Rumble · 11-30-2010, 02:14 PM

This card is sick. I want to see every fight on this card.

Good to see Thiago and Vera get the bump up to the main card, where they should have been all along. Thiago is still gonna murder Vera.

WAR Thiago!

trustkill · 11-30-2010, 02:39 PM

This one should be a banger. If Vera's smart (and that's a big IF) he'll take something from the Rashad Evans gameplan and use takedown attempts to test that balky back of Thiago.

macewen · 11-30-2010, 02:45 PM

wow, alot of people are saying thiago by savagry eh, Im going to say Vera is a better striker, So im actually taking Brandon to win the fight. In all honesty, im lookin forward to this fight more then any other one on the card likely....WAR GOOD FIGHT!