Anderson Silva will defend his middleweight title against Chris Weidman at UFC 162, UFC chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta confirmed to MMAJunkie.com Wednesday.
The event is set to takes place on July 6 in Las Vegas with the venue still to be determined.
Weidman (9-0) hasn’t fought since an impressive TKO win over Mark Munoz last July. The 28-year-old was scheduled to fight Tim Boetsch at UFC 155 in December, but was forced to withdraw due to injury and was replaced by his teammate Constantinos Philippou.
The New York native underwent shoulder surgery in November to repair a torn labrum rotator cuff and ligament damage. Weidman also had elbow surgery in September.
Silva (33-4) is coming off a TKO win over Stephan Bonnar in a 205-pound bout at UFC 153 and will be looking for his 18th consecutive win. The Brazilian is 16-0 in the UFC and last defended his 185-pound belt against Chael Sonnen at UFC 148 last July.
The 37-year-old, widely regarded as the greatest mixed martial artist of all time, was pining for a super-fight with welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre but the UFC was not able to put it together.
Also at UFC 162, a light-heavyweight fight between former Strikeforce champion Rafael (Feijão) Cavalcante and Thiago Silva is expected to take place, according to MMAFighting.com. Both men are coming off failed drug tests following submission wins that were subsequently overturned.
Cavalcante (11-3, 1 NC) choked out Mike Kyle in 33 seconds at a Strikeforce event last May, while Silva (14-3, 2 NC) tapped Stanislav Nedkov with an arm-triangle UFC on Fuel TV 6 in Macau, China in November.
