Bruno Silva, Albert Duraev to Collide at Dec. 17 UFC Fight Night Event

Two powerful Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweights angling for a successful rebound will battle it out on the final card of the year.

On Thursday, MMA Fighting reported that Bruno Silva (22-8) will come to blows with Albert Duraev (15-4) in the middleweight division. The two will fight at a currently unnumbered UFC Fight Night event on Dec. 17, which will serve as the last UFC offering in 2022. The fight card will be held at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, and shortly after the bout’s announcement, Duraev confirmed it on his Instagram page.

Silva will come into this 185-pound pairing on just the second multi-fight skid of his career, as he has dropped both of his outings in 2022 to Alex Pereira and Gerald Meerschaert. Prior to the decision setback to upcoming title challenger Pereira, “Blindado” had rattled off seven straight wins, with all seven coming by knockout. This includes his first three appearances in the Octagon, as he put Wellington Turman, Andrew Sanchez and Jordan Wright away in an impressive 2021 campaign. The Brazilian celebrates an 86% finish rate, with knockouts accounting for all of his stoppages.

Russia’s Duraev had his momentum come to a crashing halt in June, when Joaquin Buckley battered Duraev and closed his left eye, forcing the doctors to step in. This put an end to a 10-fight win streak that included a UFC win, a contract-winning performance on Dana White's Contender Series and brief title run in the now-defunct Absolute Championship Berkut league. The stoppage rate for “Machete” trails Silva by a small margin, with 80% of his victories coming inside the distance. Unlike Silva, however, Duraev has recorded the majority of his wins by submission.

The UFC will end its year with a fight card at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Dec. 17, and it will be of the UFC Fight Night variety airing exclusively on ESPN+ in the U.S. There is currently no headliner announced for the event, nor much in the way of indicated card position for the five bouts billed on its lineup thus far. Beyond Silva-Duraev, other matches include a flyweight tilt pitting ex-title challenger Alex Perez against the surging Amir Albazi, a 185-pound affair between Julian Marquez and Deron Winn, a scrap at flyweight between Sergey Morozov and Journey Newson, and a light heavyweight encounter when Jamal Pogues takes on Tafon Nchukwi.