A bout between Matt Brown and Erick Silva has been named the main event for UFC Fight Night 40 in Cincinnati on May 10.
This will be the first time either of these welterweight contenders has headlined a UFC card.
Brown (18–11) is riding a six-fight win streak, which is currently the longest active win streak in the UFC’s welterweight division—Georges St-Pierre was on a 12-fight streak prior to vacating his title in December. During his streak, Brown has knocked out Mike Pyle, Jordan Mein, Mike Swick, Luis Ramos, Chris Cope and won a decision over rising star Stephen Thompson.
“At this point in my career I’m not very far away from a title fight,” Brown told Damon Martin of FOX Sports, who first reported the matchup. “That’s definitely what I’m looking to accomplish. I try to think of this as just another fight.”
The 31-year-old, who fights out of Cincinnati, was scheduled to meet Carlos Condit at UFC on FOX 9 in December but was forced off the card after herniating two discs in his back.
Silva (16-4, 1 NC) knocked out Takenori Sato in a mere 52 seconds on Feb. 15. The 29-year-old Brazilian has alternated wins and losses since making his UFC debut in August 2011.
UFC Fight Night 40 takes place at the U.S. Bank Arena. This will be the second UFC event ever held in Cincinnati. The first one was UFC 77 in October 2007.
Here is a look at the projected fight card to date:
— Matt Brown vs Erick Silva
— Erik Koch vs Daron Cruickshank
— Ed Herman vs Rafael Natal
— Eddie Wineland vs Johnny Eduardo
— Nik Lentz vs Manvel Gamburyan
— Costa Philippou vs Lorenz Larkin
— Soa Palelei vs Ruan Potts
— Kyoji Horiguchi vs Darrell Montague
— Justin Salas vs Ben Wall
— Chris Cariaso vs Louis Smolka
— Yan Cabral vs Alexander Yakovlev
