A pair of former UFC stars will clash in a boxing match on the undercard of the upcoming fight between Jake Paul and Anthony Joshua.
Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions announced Friday that Anderson Silva and Tyron Woodley will face off at the event, which will take place at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida, on Dec. 19, and stream live on Netflix.
Per Ariel Helwani of Yahoo Sports, Silva vs. Woodley will be a professional, six-round bout fought at 195 pounds.
MMAFighting.com’s Mike Heck reported that while Silva was originally slated to face another former UFC star in Chris Weidman, a change was needed due to Weidman suffering an injury.
Both Silva and Woodley were highly successful MMA fighters who held titles in UFC.
Silva, 50, was the UFC middleweight champion from 2006 to 2013, making him the longest-reigning champ in the history of the promotion.
The Brazilian superstar went 34-11 with one no contest during his MMA career, although most of those losses came at the end of his career, as he was 33-4 at one point.
Woodley, 43, was a UFC welterweight champion, holding it from 2016 until 2019 when he dropped it to Kamaru Usman.
Overall, Woodley went 19-7-1 overall, and like Silva, he experienced some late-career struggles by losing his final four fights.
After excelling in MMA, both Silva and Woodley turned to boxing, and they were each opponents of Paul.
Silva beat boxer Julio César Chávez Jr. and former UFC star Tito Ortiz in boxing matches in 2021 before losing to Paul by unanimous decision in 2022.
More recently, Silva fought another former UFC star in Chael Sonnen to a draw in an exhibition fight last year.
Woodley’s only two career boxing matches were against Paul. The first fight was a close one that Paul won by split decision in August 2021. Four months later, Paul won the rematch by knockout.
Given their similar level of experience in both MMA and boxing, Silva vs. Woodley figures to be a highly competitive matchup.
Meanwhile, Paul will face the biggest challenge of his career by a long shot against a former world heavyweight boxing champion in Joshua, who is five inches taller than Paul and holds a significant weight advantage.