UFC 77: HOSTILE TERRITORY

UFC 77: HOSTILE TERRITORY
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Distributed by Canadastar Boxing Inc.
To Canadian Commercial Establishments
On Closed Circuit-Pay Per View

THE BOUT

UFC MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
ANDERSON "THE SPIDER" SILVA VS. RICH "ACE" FRANKLIN
WITH HEAVYWEIGHT FEATURE
TIM"THE MAINE-IAC" SYLVIA VS. BRANDON "THE TRUTH" VERA

UFC Middleweight Champion, Anderson "The Spider" Silva will travel to the hometown of the man he took the title from, Rich "Ace" Franklin, to defend his crown against the popular former titlist in a highly anticipated rematch entitled UFC 77: HOSTILE TERRITORY to take place in Cincinnati, Ohio on Saturday, October 20th.

"Anderson Silva has shown he is probably one of the most deadly 185 pounders we've ever seen," said Dana White, UFC President. "and he has shown no signs of slowing down in his two fights since beating Rich Franklin last year. But Rich told me that he has never trained harder for a fight than he is for this one, and he is determined to not only win his title back, but to do so in front of his hometown fans on October 20th."

After a devastating first round loss to Silva in their Middleweight title bout in October 2006, Franklin has spent the last year training, fighting hard, and winning in order to get back to the number one contender's spot. Meanwhile Silva, the reigning and defending champion, has fought and won twice since taking the best from Franklin, and his plans for UFC 77 involve defending his title and spoiling his challenger's homecoming.

Silva (19-4), fighting out of Curitiba, Brazil, is an extremely well-rounded fighter with phenomenal striking skills as well as a Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. After defeating Chris Leben and Franklin in the first round in his first two UFC fights, "The Spider" took on Travis Lutter in February in what was supposed to be his first title defense, but Lutter fell short of making weight by a half-pound. As a result, their fight was altered to a three-round non-championship bout, but Silva still finished Lutter by submission at 2:11 of the second round. Silva then took on Nathan Marquardt at UFC 73 in July 2007 and finally got his first successful title defense under his belt with an impressive first round TKO win.

Franklin (24-2), fought a good portion of his career as a light heavyweight before moving to the middleweight division. At UFC 53, he stopped UFC champion, Evan Tanner to capture the middleweight crown. He made his first tile defense against Nate Quarry at UFC 56, winning by first round KO, and his second defense against Canadian, David Loiseau at UFC 58 showing his championship heart as he won a five-round decision despite fighting much of the fight with a broken hand. Franklin faced Anderson Silva in his third UFC title defense, but was stopped by the Brazilian in the first round. At UFC 68 in March 2007, he returned to the Octagon™, and in front of his home state crowd, stopped Jason MacDonald at the start of the second round. At UFC 72, Franklin defeated Yushin Okami by unanimous decision to earn a rematch with Silva and a shot at redemption.

Also on the UFC 77 card will be a heavyweight matchup between former UFC Champion, Tim "The Maine-iac" Sylvia and unbeaten Brandon "The Truth" Vera. This fight will mark the first fight for Vera since a contract dispute with former management that sidelined him for almost a year.

The dynamic Vera (8-0) is excited to get back in the Octagon, and he expects to pick up where he left off last year by defeating Sylvia and every opponent afterward until he becomes the UFC heavyweight champion.

The 6' 8" Sylvia (25-3), only the second man in UFC history to win the heavyweight title twice, would like to eventually join the man he lost the crown to in March, Randy Couture, as the only fighters in history to win the title three times. A win over Vera will push him firmly in that positive direction.

- Content Courtesy UFC.com -