Yoel Romero eyes Anderson Silva for UFC on ESPN on Jan. 19 with Paulo Costa fight off (again)

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was planning on booking a massive Middleweight showdown between Yoel Romero and Paulo Costa to headline its upcoming debut on ESPN on Jan. 19, 2019 inside Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

But after Costa suffered an undisclosed injury, the fight was taken off the table (again) before it gained further traction. That’s according to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, who also revealed that “Soldier of God” isn’t interested in waiting for Paulo to get ready (presumably by March) and wants to remain on the card.

And he’s eyeing a big fish, as the former two-time title contender wants to face off against ex-middleweight king, Anderson Silva.

Silva — who hasn’t competed since February 2017 — is eligible to return to action in early 2019 after striking a deal with United States Anti Doping Agency (USADA). “Spider” did hint at wanting to fight as early as January, which makes him a good candidate for Romero.

A matchup between Silva and Romero would definitely be a good way for the promotion to kick off its partnership with ESPN, though the Brazilian bomber hasn’t shown much interest in the fight in the past.

As it stands, the only confirmed matchup for the event is one pitting Paige VanZant against Rachael Ostovich, which is set to go down at Flyweight. For more on that showdown click here.