A trilogy fight no-one was waiting for between aging veteran Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman is reported to have been booked in the boxing ring for the undercard of November 14th’s Jake Paul vs. Gervonta Davis event in Miami, which will air live on Netflix.

“Anderson and his team approached me immediately after the Jake Paul vs. ‘Tank’ Davis fight was announced and said they would like to be a part of the event and he would like to fight Chris Weidman,” Most Valuable Promotions CEO and co-founder, Nakisa Bidarian told ESPN. “Once it was clear that both men wanted it, and wanted it as a professional fight, MVP was 100% in given the history between them, reaching a broader generational consumer base and enhancing the event’s marketability in Brazil.”

You’d have to go all the way back to 2013 for the two infamous fights between Silva and Weidman in the Octagon that spelled the end for ‘The Spider’s’ glory days in the UFC.

Heading into the first fight Silva was still at the peak of his powers carrying the longest winning streak in UFC history (16) as well as an unprecedented 10 successful defences of the middleweight title.

However, early in the second round of the fight Weidman was able to land a knockout blow to end his reign and seize the title in a major upset, leading to an immediate rematch being called for six months later.

That fight would go even more disastrously for Silva however as he broke his leg while throwing a kick, leading to a TKO stoppage and a long absence from the Octagon to heal up from the gruesome injury afterwards.

And Silva was never the same fighter after that, losing five of his final seven fights in the UFC as well as seeing a win over Nick Diaz overturned to a no-contest due to testing positive for steroids.

The 50-year-old Silva left the UFC in 2020 and hasn’t fought in MMA since, but he has turned his hand to the occasion boxing bout, most notably beating Julio Cesar Chavez Jr by TKO and Tito Ortiz by KO, before losing out by unanimous decision to Jake Paul in his last bout almost exactly three years ago.

As for the 41-year-old Weidman, he’d make successful title defenses against Lyoto Machida and Vitor Belfort before he too lurched into a dismal run of form in the Octagon that saw him eight of his final 11 bouts for the promotion.

Given that seven of those losses were by either KO or TKO, including coincidentally suffering a similar broken leg to that of Silva, many fans had hoped that Weidman would hang up his gloves for good when he retired from the UFC at the end of last year.

However, like Silva it seems that Weidman has a hard time letting go of his fighting career, and so against their better judgement the two will now lock horns once again next month.