Jon Fitch will have his hands full trying to bounce back from a KO loss to Johny Hendricks when he takes on rising star Erick Silva in his own backyard at UFC 153 in Brazil on October 13th.
The fight, which was confirmed just hours ago, is Silva’s biggest to date and comes off a very impressive three-fight start to his UFC career.
Technically Silva is 2-1 in the UFC, but his only loss was a disqualification against Carlo Prator after he was ruled to have illegally punched the back of his opponents head during a 29 second destruction at UFC 142. Despite that dubious referee’s decision Silva was awarded his win bonus by the UFC.
Beyond that the Brazilian has earned an equally swift KO over Luis Ramos in his Octagon debut and notably also proved that despite his striking prowess that he can also deal with high-level wrestlers after submitting Charlie Brenneman at ‘UFC On FOX 3’ back in June.
Fitch is certainly another step up in competition however and coming off only his second loss in 16 UFC fights, the 34 year-old will have no intentions of being a stepping stone for his younger opponent and instead will be planning to reestablish himself as an integral cog in the 170lb wheel.
With this latest addition UFC 153 is shaping up to be a strong card, with the headlining featherweight title fight between current champion Jose Aldo and Erik Koch backed up with other notable encounters like Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson Vs Glover Teixeira and Alan Belcher Vs Vitor Belfort.