The day after officially announcing UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos will be defending his belt against Alistair Overeem in the main event at UFC 146, another heavyweight matchup was announced today, as Roy Nelson will welcome Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva to the UFC. UFC 146 takes place on May 26th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
This will be the fourth consecutive fight for Nelson (16-7) in his hometown of Las Vegas, as he last fought at UFC 143, losing to Fabricio Werdum via unanimous decision. Following the loss, Nelson placed a wager on his Facebook account, stating that if he earned 100,000 “likes” on his page, he would “try” to drop to 205 pounds. That attempt seems to be put on hold until after this fight in May. Since winning The Ultimate Fighter season 10 against Brendan Schaub, Nelson is just 2-3 in the UFC, which includes losses to Junior dos Santos, Frank Mir, and Werdum.
Silva (16-3) will be making his UFC debut, having fought in Strikeforce for the last two years. An entrant in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, Silva upset Fedor Emelianenko in the first round in February of last year. He then went on to lose to alternate Daniel Cormier in the semi-finals via knockout. This will be his first fight since that loss.
As mentioned, UFC 146 will be headlined by a UFC heavyweight championship fight between Junior dos Santos and Alistair Overeem. The event also features a lightweight matchup between Evan Dunham and Edson Barboza.
