Report: Anderson Silva rescheduled for matchup at UFC China event

The MMA community has been patiently waiting for the return of the former middleweight king Anderson Silva.

On Thursday, Damon Martin reporting for FloCombat stated that their sources confirmed that the former UFC middleweight champion is being targeted to fight Kelvin Gastelum at the UFC Shanghai card, which will be the first UFC event taking place in mainland China. The UFC Shanghai event is scheduled to take place on November 25.

Silva and Gastelum were scheduled to fight at UFC 212 in Brazil, which took place back in June. However, Gastelum was flagged by USADA after testing positive for marijuana metabolites stemming from an in-competition drug test conducted by USADA. Gastelum was served a 90-day suspension.

Now, it looks like the UFC is looking to get this matchup between the two back on for the Shanghai event.

Kelvin Gastelum holds a 13-3-1 professional MMA record and is coming off a UFC on FOX 25 submission loss to former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman, which happened in July.

Anderson Silva holds a 34-8-1 professional MMA record and last fought back in February, coming off a UFC 208 unanimous decision win over Derek Brunson. Prior to his win over Brunson, Silva’s last win was back in 2012 against Stephan Bonnar. “The Spider” had a tough time getting back in the winner’s column after losing the UFC middleweight title to Chris Weidman at UFC 162 but managed to do so this year.

What are your thoughts on the targeted re-booking of Anderson Silva and Kelvin Gastelum? Who gets their hand raised if they do end up fighting in Shanghai on November 25? Let’s get your picks in the comment section!

on 8/10/2017.