DREAM and K-1 veteran Yoshihiro Akiyama recently announced that he will welcome Brazilian slugger Wanderlei Silva to the middleweight division.

Akiyama made the announcement yesterday at a press conference in Japan put on by the UFC, THQ and WOW for the video game release of 'UFC 2009 Undisputed' in that country.

While no concrete date or event was mentioned, the February timeline means that the Akiyama vs. Silva middleweight scrap could take place at UFC 110 in Las Vegas or UFC 111 in Australia, although it is more likely to be the latter.

The potential match-up between Silva and Akiyama was first reported last month to be in discussions for the UFC 108 event on Jan. 2, however, it is not yet known why the bout has been pushed back a month.

Akiyama most recently defeated Alan Belcher via split decision in his UFC debut in July at UFC 100. Belcher and Akiyama earned "Fight of the Night" honors for their performance at the event and each took home an extra $100,000 for the bonus.

Akiyama sports a near perfect MMA record of 13-1, with all but one of his 13 career wins being finishes. He suffered his lone career loss against Jerome LeBanner in March 2005, and holds notable wins over the likes of Melvin Manhoef and Denis Kang.

Silva (32-10-1) is 1-5 in his last six bouts, which include back-to-back losses against the likes of Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and most recently Rich Franklin at UFC 99 in June. Prior to those losses, he defeated Keith Jardine at UFC 84 last May. Silva has put together a dismal 2-5 UFC record as he has suffered other Octagon losses against notables such as Tito Ortiz, Vitor Belfort and Chuck Liddell.