By Patrick Navarro (media@latinospost.com) | First Posted: Dec 28, 2015 06:06 AM EST
Tags Anderson Silva, Michael Bisping, UFC

Anderson Silva will be back in action as early as February 2016 after UFC president Dana White made the official announcement via Twitter.

“The Spider” will be facing Michael “The Count” Bisping at UFC Fight Night 83 on Feb. 27 at the O2 Arena.

With the match being set in London, Bisping is expected to benefit immensely since he is fighting in front of his hometown crowd. Other than that, he is coming off back-to-back wins which gives “The Count” the proper conditioning and momentum against his Brazilian counterpart.

There is a waterloo on Bisping’s part though. This has to do with the fact that he has not actually fared well against world-class opponents and such may work to the advantage of his Brazilian opponent.

Though Silva is already 40, there is no question that he can still get it on in the Octagon. But the question is how conditioned “The Spider” is.

His last match was against Nick Diaz in January of this year so it will be interesting how prepped and ready he is when he gets it on with Bisping in London.

If his statement via UFC.com is any indication, the Silva is pretty confident of making it past Bisping. So confident that he is looking beyond the fight and entertaining thought of another title reign.

“It’s been a while since I fought in London for the last time, and I’m really excited to be back. I believe this is going to be a big test so I can come back and go after a title shot,” says Silva.

However, the path towards another title run could be difficult for Silva. This would include potentially going through a maze of fighters, mostly Brazilians that will include a couple of his buddies - Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza and Lyoto Machida.

Other Brazilians include Vitor Belfort and Yoel Romero who are ranked while he is not. Bisping is ranked 7th.

In order for Silva to get up there and vie for a title shot, he may have to go through several fights which include facing his fellow Brazilians. Curiously he made it a rule before that he would not face off against his countrymen.

If he does intend to go for the title currently held by Luke Rockhold, he may need to defeat Souza and Machida.

A non-Brazilian opponent is also ranked, Chris Weidman. Silva doesn’t exactly have a good batting average against him, losing back-to-back fights which saw him shelved for about six months as pointed out by MMA News.

So if Silva does set his sights on the UFC middleweight title, he will go through the proverbial eye of the needle to get there. It does seem hard though not impossible.

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