Keith Jardine and Thiago Silva will meet at UFC 102

A light heavyweight bout between Keith Jardine (14-5-1) and Thiago Silva (13-1) has been officially announced for UFC 102. 

Both fighters are coming off of losses. Jardine recently dropped a unanimous decision to Quinton Jackson at UFC 96 and Thiago Silva was knocked out by Lyoto Machida at UFC 94. 

According to the USA Today / SBN Consensus Rankings Keith Jardine is the sixth ranked light heavyweight and Thiago Silva is just out of the top ten at number eleven. 

Jardine has been the model of inconsistency lately with a record of .500 in his past six bouts. In those fights Jardine has beaten two former champions, in Forrest Griffin and Chuck Liddell, but has lost to the relatively unknown Houston Alexander. If Jardine ever wants to contend for a title he will need to break through his inconsistencies. 

Thiago Silva was previously undefeated until he fought Lyoto Machida. Prior to said defeat, Silva had built a 4-0 record in the UFC and had cracked the top-ten. A victory over Jardine would put Silva back into the top-ten and possible title contention. 

UFC 102 is set for August 29th in Portland Oregon. The fight card will a heavyweight bout between Randy Couture and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira as the main event.