Wanderlei Silva vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama now slated for UFC 116 in July

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A long-rumored middleweight bout between Wanderlei Silva and Yoshihiro Akiyama is now in the works for UFC 116 on July 3 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The news comes courtesy of a report at Fighter's Only.

Though not officially announced, UFC 116 will likely feature the return of UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar against the winner of this Saturday's UFC 111 interim heavyweight title bout between Frank Mir and Shane Carwin.

Silva and Akiyama were originally slated to face each other at UFC 110 last month, however, the UFC opted to pit Silva against Michael Bisping who he subsequently defeated.

Following Silva's win at UFC 110, UFC President Dana White confirmed that Silva would next face Akiyama. Silva strong voiced his interest in a fight with Akiyama after White told him that the Japanese superstar wanted a fight against him.

Silva (33-10-1) made a successful middleweight debut in his last bout, scored a unanimous decision win over Michael Bisping at the aforementioned UFC 110 event in February. Prior to the win, he suffered back-to-back losses to Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Rich Franklin. Silva sports a 3-5 UFC record suffering other Octagon losses against notables such as Tito Ortiz, Vitor Belfort and Chuck Liddell.

The longtime Pride veteran has been competing professionally for over 13 years, scoring notable wins over the likes of Dan Henderson, Kazushi Sakuraba, Ricardo Arona and Quinton Jackson (x2). He has finished 26 of his 32 career wins, including 23 coming by TKO or KO.

Akiyama hasn't fought since defeating Alan Belcher via split decision in his UFC debut in July 2009 at UFC 100. Belcher and Akiyama earned "Fight of the Night" honors for their performance at the event, and each took home an extra $100,000 for the bonus. He has not been defeated since suffering his only career loss against Jerome LeBanner in March 2005.

The K-1 and DREAM veteran sports a near perfect MMA record of 13-1, with all but one of his 13 career wins being finishes. He holds notable wins over the likes of Melvin Manhoef and Denis Kang.