UFC 139 Results: Wanderlei Silva vs. Cung Le Breakdown and Prediction

Legendary MMA superstars go to battle at UFC 139, as Wanderlei Silva hopes to steer away retirement talk by defeating former Strikeforce world champion and action movie star Cung Le.

Despite his legendary status amongst the MMA world, Le has never competed under the bright lights of the UFC, and matchmaker Joe Silva certainly isn't easing him into the middleweight mix.

After over a year hiatus, the former IKF light heavyweight San Shou World Champion jumps right into the fire against former Pride middleweight champion Silva, who is coming off a first round knockout loss to Chris Leben.

Stylistically, this is one of the more interesting matchups of the year.

Silva has been knocked out viciously in four of his last six losses, but he will likely never stray from his berserker-like fighting style. He's going to press forward with wild punches until he either knocks someone out or gets knocked out.

On the other hand, Cung Le is more of a tactician. His style is unique in the fact that he doesn't throw many punches. He sets his entire offense up with a multitude of unorthodox kicks and tricky footwork.

Silva is a world class striker, but his ability to absorb punishment has declined greatly over the years. If Le can keep the fight in the open and land consistently, he has a great chance of putting Silva away early.

This entire bout will come down to Le's ability to keep his distance and pick Silva apart in the open.Unfortunately for Le, a game plan of this manner is easier said than done against a fighter like Silva.

While he is a great precision kickboxer, Le doesn't have the best counter skills against an overly-aggressive striker.

With Silva involved, it's incredibly difficult to make any fight pretty, and there won't be any exception in this one.

Silva will push the action right off the bat and force Le into wild, unnecessary exchanges.

There won't be any director around yelling "cut" when "The Axe Murderer" drops Le with a vicious hook and pounces with a barrage of ground punches for the first round stoppage.

Be sure to stay tuned to Bleacher Report for all things UFC 139. B/R is your home for complete coverage of the November 19 fight card , from pre-fight predictions to in-fight coverage, results and post-fight analysis.