{"id":409086,"date":"2025-09-09T00:26:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T00:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/409086\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T00:26:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T00:26:10","slug":"wanderlei-silvas-replacement-opponent-for-spaten-fight-night-2-is-popo-freitas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/409086\/","title":{"rendered":"Wanderlei Silva\u2019s replacement opponent for Spaten Fight Night 2 is Popo Freitas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\"><strong>Wanderlei Silva<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2025\/7\/15\/24468243\/vitor-belfort-vs-wanderlei-silva-rematch-booked-sept-27-brazil-mma\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">was supposed to box<\/a> <strong>Vitor Belfort<\/strong> at Spaten Fight Night 2 later this month (Sept. 27, 2025), but unfortunately, \u201cThe Phenom\u201d suffered <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-news\/386985\/vitor-belfort-withdraws-wanderlei-silva-fight-reveals-very-serious-injury-suffered-training-ufc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a grade 3 concussion<\/a> during training and that fight is being postponed until 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Silva will still compete on the Sao Paulo, Brazil-based card \u2026 and against a potentially much tougher opponent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Indeed, Spaten Fight Night just announced that \u201cThe Axe Murderer\u201d will face former Brazilian boxing champion, <strong>Acelino \u201cPopo\u201d Freitas<\/strong>, who retired in 2007 with a 40-2 record and 34 knockouts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cIllustrious Wanderlei, I am deeply saddened to learn that your fight at Spaten Fight Night will not take place as planned,\u201d Freitas wrote on social media. \u201cHowever, after 34 knockouts in my career, I will have the honor of making you my thirty-fifth. On the 27th, I will extend my hand to you. In this case, a hand of stone!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">We weren\u2019t too hot on the idea of Silva boxing at all, considering the PRIDE FC recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2024\/10\/8\/24264817\/ufc-legend-wanderlei-silva-suffering-cte-symptoms-frightening-health-update-depression-espn-mma\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">submitted an affidavit<\/a> in UFC\u2019s antitrust case revealing he suffered from several symptoms linked to traumatic brain injury. At least he was supposed to fight Belfort, a fellow aged-out mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter with little formal boxing experience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">But, \u201cPopo\u201d is a two-time Super Featherweight and two-time Lightweight champion in boxing. His 27-fight knockout streak is one of the longest in the history of boxing. In short, this is one of those fights where the MMA guy could take a beating.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Fortunately, this probably isn\u2019t going to be a violent affair.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Hopefully, it\u2019s the same with \u201cPopo\u201d and Wand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wanderlei Silva was supposed to box Vitor Belfort at Spaten Fight Night 2 later this month (Sept. 27,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,126861,118964,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-409086","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-boxing-news-results","10":"tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115171503925495311","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}