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News of Sylvia's signing and this bout with Cormier was first reported by MMAJunkie.com.
Sylvia left the UFC in 2008, getting an early release from his contract despite having one fight left. He then took a big money fight against Fedor Emelianenko, suffering a quick loss on the first Affliction pay-per-view event. A subsequent loss to pro boxer Ray Mercer in 2009, in which he came in around 300 lbs., had Sylvia at the lowest point of his career.
He's hopped from fight to fight and promotion to promotion since then, and has won seven of his last eight fights into this event. However, his hopes to get back into the UFC have been met by outright refusal from UFC officials. Indeed, UFC President Dana White denied any possibility of him being involved in this fight as late as this week.
Instead, he will enter Strikeforce, taking a spot as Cormier's final Strikeforce opponent. Cormier and Josh Barnett were held in the organization for the finals of the Grand Prix tournament when the rest of the division was folded, with one more fight promised after that. On last week's Strikeforce broadcast, Cormier was announced as fighting on a September 29 event, though the opponent wasn't announced at that time.
Penick's Analysis: Well. This is happening. It's very unfortunate that Showtime felt the need to have one more heavyweight fight after the Grand Prix, because Cormier's now fighting Sylvia instead of coming into the UFC for a fight against a top five opponent. Sylvia makes sense as an opponent, as he's one of the only heavyweights outside of the UFC with any kind of name to book in the fight. Cormier now just have to pick up another win and he can finally head over to the UFC.
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