Wanderlei Silva is teasing a massive MMA card that will take place at the Tyson Ranch featuring Fedor Emelianenko and Tito Ortiz, plus more.
Silva posted a photo on his social media of a poster for an event called “Fight Club After Dark.” The poster says the event will take place on November 21 at the Tyson Ranch in Desert Hot Springs, California, with the tagline, “Experience live MMA like never before under the stars on the Tyson Ranch.”
According to the poster, Silva is teasing a rematch against arch-rival Vitor Belfort. As well, the poster suggests Tito Ortiz will fight Rashad Evans in a trilogy fight and Fedor Emelianenko will take on Fabricio Werdum in a rematch. The poster also says that there will be two more high-profile undercard fights added to the event, as well as musical guests.
Take a look at the poster Silva shared on his Instagram below.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEhTf1rn2Gb/
Here we go @werdum @fedoremelianenkoofficial @titoortiz99 @evanderholyfield @vitorbelfort @wandfc great event ! I can’t wait for !
There is a lot to take away from this post from Silva, and it is fair to question if it’s real or not. After all, several of these fighters are under contract to other promotions including Belfort, who is part of the ONE Championship roster, and Emelianenko, who is under contract with Bellator. However, several of the other fighters are not locked into promotions right now including Silva himself plus Ortiz, Evans, and Werdum.
Fans are in their right to question the legitimacy of this event considering no other details were shared by Wanderlei Silva, but it is at least worth noting that several of these matchups have been rumored for a while, so there could be some legs to this. We all know Silva and Belfort want to fight each other again, as do Emelianenko and Werdum, and we have been teased about a third fight between Evans and Ortiz before, as well. So while it might seem to be phony at first glance, maybe there is something more to this.
It’s also worth noting that the event poster says this event will take place on November 21, which is the same day as UFC 255, featuring Deiveison Figueiredo vs. Cody Garbrandt and Valentina Shevchenko vs. Jennifer Maia. As well, it’s worth mentioning that November 28 is the proposed new date for Mike Tyson to fight Roy Jones, Jr. At this point, this event is just a rumor, but it is at least giving MMA fans something fun to talk about.
UPDATE on September 3: A spokesperson at Tyson Ranch reached out to BJPenn.com to deny the rumors of the dream MMA card that Silva posted about.
“While we appreciate the excitement over someday hosting a legendary fight card at Tyson Ranch, the flyer seen on social media is merely a fun mockup intended for internal use. Contrary to rumors, nobody has been approached and no events are in the works at this time. However, the dream lineup sure has caused some buzz around the MMA community.”