Legendary former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva’s last two attempts to fight in Brazil have fallen apart for two very different reasons.
Silva’s UFC 212 showdown with Kelvin Gastelum was scrapped due to Gastelum’s drug test failure for marijuana, and a request to have Yoel Romero fight him for the interim middleweight belt was denied. In 2016, he was scheduled to face Uriah Hall at UFC 198 in his hometown of Curitiba, but emergency gall bladder surgery forced him to pull out of a UFC bout for the first time in his career.
Whether or not Silva actually follows through with his retirement threats remains to be seen, but Hall is banking on Anderson still wanting to fight, and he tweeted on Tuesday that he wants to revive their once-cancelled contest.
@SpiderAnderson let’s make a fight happen for the fans. we have unfinished business….
— U R I A H H A L L (@UriahHallMMA) May 9, 2017
Hall (12-8) is on a three-fight losing streak, albeit to top competition. He’s coming off back-to-back first-round TKOs to Derek Brunson and Gegard Mousasi, with a unanimous decision defeat to Robert Whittaker preceding those fights. The TUF 17 runner-up hasn’t won since his upset TKO of Mousasi in September 2015.
As for Silva, it looks like he’s off of UFC 212 altogether, so if he does fight again it won’t be on June 3rd.
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