Two MMA legends will be fighting, but not in a cage.Anderson Silva and Tito Ortiz signed agreements to fight in an eight-round boxing match at cruiserweight on Sept. 11. This will be the co-feature, before Oscar De La Hoya takes on Vitor Belfort in the pay per view main event. Triller cofounder Ryan Kavanaugh spoke to ESPN on Wednesday.The Triller PPV will be held at Staples Centre in Los Angeles. It will feature two boxing matches: ex-heavyweight champion David Haye against Joe Fournier, and Andy Vences against Jono Carroll in an encounter of 130-pound fringe competitors.Silva stated, "I am very excited to have, along with my group, the opportunity to get in ring against Tito Ortiz Sept. 11 with Triller Fight Club. They are really shaking up the combat sports world."California State Athletic Commission will sanction the Silva-Ortiz, Haye-Fournier and Haye-Fournier bouts. This means that they will be actual bouts, and not exhibitions. Silva and Ortiz will be fighting eight rounds of two-minute each, while Haye and Fournier will be fighting eight rounds of three-minute each.Silva-Ortiz will be officiated by John McCarthy (Big), a former UFC referee.Silva, 46, defeated Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in June. He then entered negotiations to fight YouTube personality Logan Paul.Silva, a former UFC Middleweight Champion, holds the record at 2,457 Days for the longest title reign in promotion history. With 18 appearances on UFC PPV, he is one of the most prominent MMA stars. In October, he lost a fourth round TKO to Uriah Hill. This was his seventh loss in nine Octagon appearances. He was then released by UFC one month later.Ortiz was also one of the UFC’s most bankable stars. Nearly 10 years after his last UFC fight, Ortiz will make his pro-boxing debut at 46.Ortiz, a long-standing UFC light heavyweight champion and a former UFC 13 winner in 1997, said that he was excited about the challenge ahead. Fighting on Sept. 11 is a big deal to me as a patriot."Haye-Fournier will be the start of a two-pronged, PPV. The first part is geared towards U.K. fans. Haye is a former champion heavyweight and cruiserweight boxing. After a second defeat to Tony Bellew, Haye retired in May 2018.Fournier, a part-time fighter who stopped Reykon from performing on April's Jake Paul-Ben Askren Triller Undercard, is an example of a boxer.The pay-per-view first segment will begin at 5 p.m. and features Haye (40). ET. Kavanaugh stated that a free-view will begin afterward, just before the second part of the PPV starts at 9 ET.Kavanaugh stated that "Our goal has been to increase the audiences for combat sports, music, and culture together." "To expand MMA to boxing and boxing, and MMA into MMA; it has been teased and the potential for it was shown with [Floyd] Mayweather and [Conor] McGregor. ... The fight between two polarizing MMA heroes will hopefully drive the MMA audience to watch the fight and see how we do boxing.
