Anderson Silva vs Israel Adesanya reserved for UFC 234

One of the UFC's brightest young stars will face off against a sports legend when Israel Adesanya and Anderson Silva enter the cage. according to Brett Okamoto from ESPN, the fight will be reserved for UFC 234, which will take place on February 9, 2019 in Melbourne, Australia.

Adesanya had already expressed interest in the fight earlier in the year, just days after his third UFC win over Brad Tavares. He went on Instagram to see if his fans would want to see a potential fight with Silva.

At that time, Silva did not share any interest in sharing the octagon with the rising candidate. In an interview with CBS Sports, the former champion rejected the call.

"I do not know that name, this guy," Silva told Brian Campbell. He also added that he would do his research on it and think about the fight at some point.

After the unbeaten, Adesanya claimed he was one of the best players with a dominant performance against Derek Brunson at UFC 230, but he seems to have caught Silva's attention.

Silva has been relatively inactive in recent years due to problems with USADA. Since his consecutive defeats against Chris Weidman who cost him his average weight belt in 2013, he has fought only four times. He defeated Nick Diaz, a decision that was later quashed after both fighters failed a drug test, before losing two consecutive decisions against Michael Bisping and Daniel Cormier, respectively.

Silva's most recent fight took place at UFC 208 where he defeated Brunson, the same opponent as Adesanya had finished in the first round at UFC 230, by unanimous decision.

This is the second fight reserved for UFC 234. The middleweight champion, Robert Whittaker, will defend his title against Kelvin Gastelum at the event. The battle between Adesanya and Silva being also 185, one of them could end up getting revenge if something happened to any of the fighters in the main competition.