Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Anderson Silva Confirmed to Defend His Title Against Yushin Okami at UFC: Rio

As expected, UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre beating Jake Shields at UFC 129 will not guarantee a superfight between St-Pierre and middleweight champion Anderson Silva.

Speculation has become fact when Dana White announced that Silva will defend his title against Yushin Okami at UFC: Rio on August 27.  

White first revealed the news to USA today, while MMAJunkie.com confirmed that both parties had verbally agreed to a fight. 

As the event title suggests, the event will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Silva was born and raised in Brazil.

Okami is the last person to defeat Silva in MMA, doing so at Rumble at the Rock in 2006. Of course, the win was via disqualification after Okami could not continue due to an illegal upkick from Silva.

Since then, Silva has built up a 13 fight win streak and eight successful title defenses in the UFC. Both are records within the company.

Last month, Okami went on record saying that he felt he could beat Silva in a full-length fight, and in turn became the latest big star in MMA.

"Thunder" has won six of his past seven fights, including notching notable decision victories over Mark Munoz and Nate Marquardt.    

However, Okami's sole loss in this time span was to Chael Sonnen, the only man who has given Silva any sort of fight since he has become champion.

In the end though, he ended up like all the rest, getting submitted via a triangle armbar by Silva in the fifth round of their championship fight at UFC 117.  

Silva's Black House teammate, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, mentioned that he expected to see Silva vs. Okami on the UFC:Rio card last week, but a number of sources wrote off his statement as premature.  

Mary Elizabeth Winstead Piper Perabo Anna Kournikova Esther CaƱadas Kate Beckinsale

No comments:

Post a Comment