Wanderlei Silva (above) will fight Chris Leben at UFC 132

Former PRIDE champion Wanderlei Silva (33-10-1) will face Chris Leben (25-7) in a middleweight bout at UFC 132 on July 2 in Las Vegas.

The promotion made the announcement on April 4 on UFC.com.

After ruling the Japanese circuit at light heavyweight for years, Silva lost his last two fights in PRIDE and went 1-2 in the UFC at 205, dropping fights to Chuck Liddell and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson with a win over Keith Jardine in between. He then began the cut to 185, first losing a close decision to Rich Franklin at a 195 catchweight bout and beating Michael Bisping in his first middleweight contest.

Due to injury, Silva hasn’t competed since the February 2010 win over Bisping.

Leben had put together a three fight win streak following consecutive losses to Michael Bisping and Jake Rosholt. However, his win streak came to an end against Brian Stann at UFC 125, where he suffered just the second KO/TKO loss of his career.

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