UFC 208: Holly Holm, Anderson Silva Return To The Octagon

UFC 208 is scheduled to take place Saturday, February 11, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The main fight card starts at 10 p.m. EST and features two big name fighters who haven’t been seen in the Octagon for months.

Holly Holm and Germaine de Randamie will be introducing a new female weight class, which is the featherweight weight class at 145 pounds. Their fight will be the first of its kind within the UFC.

Holm, best known for being the one to put an end to Ronda Rousey’s bantamweight winning streak, will be facing Germaine de Randamie, a 32-year-old Dutch fighter who has six wins and three losses, one of the latter being against the current UFC bantamweight champ Amanda Nunes, who, like Holm, has also earned a win against former reigning champion Rousey.

Nunes and Holm have never fought one another, though Nunes has told TMZ and others that she desires to take on the winner of Saturday’s featherweight matchup between Holm and de Randamie.

Germaine, whose fighter nickname is “The Iron Lady,” is a striker, and since Holly is known for her boxing skills, viewers may very well be looking at a stand-up match between the two female mixed martial artists.

It's official the UFC will crown an inaugural Woman's FW champion tomorrow night at #ufc208 in Brooklyn @IronLadyMMA vs @HollyHolm #weighin pic.twitter.com/CRmV4EvLpr

— PARLAY WOLF (@parlaywolf) February 11, 2017

Do 145-pound females have knock-out power? You’ll have to tune in to see. Like most all UFC headliners, a pay-per-view purchase is required to see the main fights in full.

Also returning to the Octagon is one of the world’s most renowned mixed martial artists, Anderson Silva, who, at 41 years of age, has had quite the fighting career.

Nicknamed “the Spider,” Silva’s reign was shattered when, after he relentlessly mocked Chris Weidman during a championship fight, Weidman kept his cool and knocked him out. That happened during UFC 162 on July 6, 2013. Anderson then got a rematch against Weidman about six months later, on December 28, 2013. It was during that UFC 168 title fight that Silvia’s left leg was brutally broken as Weidman checked one of Silva’s kicks, putting an indefinite hold on “The Spider’s” career.

Silva came back to the UFC a little over a year after the injury he suffered fighting Weidman. For his first fight back, Anderson went up against Nick Diaz for UFC 183 on January 31, 2015. The fight went all five rounds, and Silva was declared the winner at the end, but it ended up being a “no contest” for both fighters because after the fight it had been discovered that the Brazilian had banned substances in his system. Anderson denied taking the drugs, which are called drostanolone and androstane, but his denial was to no avail and he was disciplined by NSAC (Nevada State Athletic Commission).

Silva was back for a UFC Fight Night matchup between him and Michael Bisping in February 2016, and again for UFC 200 versus heavyweight champ Daniel Cormier the following July. He lost both matchups.

On Saturday, Anderson Silva returns once more to go up against Derek Brunson for the one of the night’s middleweight bouts. Brunson, who has no official fighter nickname listed, is eight years Silva’s junior with a record of 16 wins and 4 losses. He lost his last matchup this past November when he went up against Robert Whittaker.

The co-main event for #UFC208 will be ???@SpiderAnderson vs. @DerekBrunson pic.twitter.com/mgFZWT3uvx

— Matthew Wells (@MrMWells) February 10, 2017

Silva and Brunson have never fought one another, and both lost their last fight. Each fighter has a unique set of skills to bring to the table, which should make for an interesting matchup indeed.

The UFC 208 fight card, in addition to the Holm-de Randamie and Silva-Brunson matchups, includes another middleweight bout between Ronaldo Souza and Tim Boetsch, light heavyweights Glover Teixeira versus Jared Cannonier, and lightweights Dustin Poirier against Jim Miller. The only title fight of the night will be the female bantamweight matchup.

[Featured Image by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images]