UFC 183: Anderson Silva vs. Nick Diaz Announced for Super Bowl Weekend

The rumors of Nick Diaz vs. Anderson Silva turned out to be true, as the two MMA stars are set to face off in 2015. UFC President Dana White took to ESPN’s Sportscenter to announce the fight, via Sherdog. The fight will take place at UFC 183, which will be next year’s rendition of the UFC’s annual Super Bowl weekend card.

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Diaz vs. Silva will be a middleweight contest, which is “The Spider’s” natural weight class. Diaz has fought a catchweight bout at 180 but has never officially competed as a middleweight.

Diaz’s return to the UFC was recently announced, as he signed a three-fight extension with the promotion. Silva will return from a gruesome leg injury that he sustained at UFC 168 when competing against Chris Weidman. The former middleweight champion has been cleared to spar and is ready to prepare for his return, per Sherdog.

Upon Diaz’s re-signing with the promotion, the UFC released a report that mentioned that the Stockton, California, native may be involved in big matchups.

Anderson Silva was mentioned within the commentary, which only further fueled the fire for this contest in the MMA community. This is perhaps one of the largest bouts that the UFC can make at this point, due to a lack of major star power within their roster. Both Diaz and Silva have brought in high pay-per-view buyrate numbers with past events, which have eluded the promotion at this time.

The Super Bowl weekend card is consistently one of the bigger events that the UFC puts on every year. The last two years have featured some of the bigger matchups that the organization could present at the time, including Jose Aldo vs. Frankie Edgar at UFC 156 and a double title event at UFC 169.

UFC 183 is planned to occur on January 31 in Las Vegas.