LIVE - Saturday, October 20 @ 10pm ET / 7pm PT
From U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio
In one of the biggest shockers of 2006, Muay Thai expert Anderson "The Spider" Silva scored a first round technical knockout over Rich "Ace" Franklin to convincingly win the UFC Middleweight Championship. Now, nearly one year later, Silva has successfully defended his title twice, and Franklin has made a solid return to the top of UFC's middleweight rankings.
At UFC 77: HOSTILE TERRITORY, the championship rematch takes place in front of Franklin's hometown crowd. Will Anderson Silva be able to emerge from his opponent's home turf with the championship in tact?
“Anderson Silva has shown he is probably one of the most deadly 185 pounders we’ve ever seen,” said Dana White, UFC President, “and he has shown no signs of slowing down in his two fights since beating Rich Franklin last year. But Rich told me that he has never trained harder for a fight than he is for this one, and he is determined to not only win his title back, but to do so in front of his
After a devastating first round loss to Silva in their Middleweight title bout in October of 2006, Franklin has spent the last year training, fighting hard, and winning in order to get back to the number one contender’s spot. Meanwhile, Silva, the reigning and defending champion, has fought and won twice since taking the belt from Franklin, and his plans for UFC 77 involve defending his title and spoiling his challenger’s homecoming.
Silva (19-4), fighting out of Curitiba, Brazil, is an extremely well-rounded fighter with phenomenal striking skills as well as a Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. After defeating Chris Leben and Franklin in the first round in his first two UFC fights, “The Spider” took on Travis Lutter in February in what was supposed to be his first title defense, but Lutter fell short of making weight by a half-pound. As a result, their fight was altered to a three-round non-championship bout, but Silva still finished Lutter by submission at 2:11 of the second round. Silva then took on Nathan Marquardt at UFC 73 in July and finally got his first successful title defense under his belt with an impressive first round TKO win.
Franklin (24-2) fought a good portion of his career as a light heavyweight before moving to the middleweight division. At UFC 53, he stopped UFC champion Evan Tanner to capture the middleweight crown. He made his first title defense against Nate Quarry at UFC 56, winning by first round KO, and his second defense against Canadian David Loiseau at UFC 58 showed his championship heart as he won a five round decision despite fighting much of the fight with a broken hand. Franklin faced Anderson Silva in his third UFC title defense, but was stopped by the Brazilian in the first round. At UFC 68 in March, he returned to the Octagon™, and in front of his home state crowd, stopped Jason MacDonald at the start of the second round. At UFC 72, Franklin defeated Yushin Okami by unanimous decision to earn a rematch with Silva and a shot at redemption.
Also on the UFC 77 card will be a heavyweight matchup between former UFC Champion Tim “The Maine-iac” Sylvia and unbeaten Brandon “The Truth” Vera. This fight will mark the first fight for Vera since a contract dispute with former management sidelined him for almost a year. The dynamic Vera (8-0) is excited to get back in the Octagon, and he expects to pick up where he left off last year by defeating Sylvia and every opponent afterward until he becomes the UFC heavyweight champion. The 6 foot 8 Sylvia (25-3), only the second man in UFC history to win the heavyweight title twice, would like to eventually join the man he lost the crown to in March, Randy Couture, as the only fighters in history to win the title three times. A win over Vera will push him firmly in that positive direction.
Fightcard Lineup
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