Wanderlei Silva is expected to make his return to combat sports for the first time since 2018 later this year against a fellow UFC Hall of Famer.
Silva and Vitor Belfort will meet in a boxing match on September 27 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, per a report from MMA Fighting this week.
The event will headline “Spaten Fight Night 2,” promoted by the same company which presented a five-round exhibition bout between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen last year.
“The Axe Murderer” hasn’t been seen in action since 2018, when he lost at Bellator 206 to fellow Pride FC trailblazer Rampage Jackson. He announced his retirement from MMA in 2022, but seemed interested in continuing to fight through different combat sports routes afterward.
Silva was expected to be a manager for the inaugural Global Fight League (GFL) season this year, overseeing one of the promotion’s teams. However, with the company’s May events cancelled and no replacement shows announced since, plans about such a collaboration seem dead.
Silva will be stepping into the ring roughly a year after he provided a damning testimony in the Cung Le et al. vs. Zuffa UFC antitrust lawsuit, where he mentioned his belief that an extensive combat sports career has caused him brain injuries.
“I fear that during my career I have suffered traumatic brain injury (TBI) and am noticing symptoms common with TBI and CTE including depression, mood swings, and irritability,” he said in a declaration filed in the case.
Belfort, 48, has a history with Silva, notably beating him in 44 seconds at UFC 17.5 back in 1998. A rematch between the two was briefly planned for UFC 147 over a decade later, although a hand injury caused Belfort to withdraw from the matchup.
Belfort is no stranger to special attraction boxing bouts. In 2021, appearing for the first time since exiting the UFC roster in 2018, Belfort stopped a late-50s Evander Holyfield in under two minutes of a boxing bout. Just over two years ago, he beat fellow UFC alum Jacare Souza in a six-round boxing decision.
