Anderson Silva steps in for Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier at UFC 200 Thursday UFC President Dana White announced that former middleweight champion Anderson Silva will step in against Daniel Cormier at UFC 200. Silva (33-7) is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Michael Bisping at UFC Fight Night 84, which pushed him to a career high three-fight losing streak. Cormier (17-1) has won two straight fights since his loss to Jon Jones at UFC 182, defeating Alexander Gustafsson and Anthony Johnson. Also if you didn’t see it yesterday, our very own MMAOddsmaker Nick Kalikas opened the betting odds for Cormier vs Silva via ESPN. Here’s his reasoning
“Anderson Silva has not been an underdog in 10 years since he first fought Rich Franklin for the title at UFC 64 in October 2006. That streak ends today. Silva has agreed to step in on two days’ notice in place of Jon Jones, against UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier, a fighter with elite wrestling credentials. Silva was the best fighter in the world at one point, but that was several years ago. Silva has had trouble with wrestlers, is entering the twilight of his career, had gallbladder surgery two months ago and you can’t discount the fact that he’s taking the fight on two days’ notice. There is a huge swing in the odds here as Cormier was a 3-1 underdog against Jones, but he’s going to be a hefty -600 favorite here against Silva. Silva brings a big name to UFC 200, but I don’t expect him to be very competitive.”
Also here’s a look at Jon Jones reacting to his removal from UFC 200 (via MMAFighting) UFC 200 Embedded – Episode #5