Wanderlei Silva Vs Vitor Belfort: UFC Shocker
By Sean Farrell
The time is now for the rekindling of an old fire, Brazilian middleweight fighters Wanderlei Silva, 33-10-1, and Vitor Belfort, 19-9, have both publicly declared the desire and willingness to fight the other. “the Axe Murderer” instigated the whole thing in a conversation saying “And now, where are you running to?, I’d give him the number one (on the line to fight me) easily, I’m challenging him I want him.”
Shortly after, Vitor Belfort accepted what “the Axe Murderer” said. With one provision that their bout as soon as possible before the UFC’s planned trip to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil in August.”Let’s do it, brother. I accept it,” said Belfort. “He’s a great athlete, a great champion, and it would be a pleasure to fight him. It’d be a highly anticipated fight, very important for the sport.
Whatever Dana says I’ll do, I never chose opponents and I won’t do it now. But he made the challenge and I’m accepting it. I just don’t wanna wait for the UFC Rio to come back, I wanna fight first.”
Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva first met at the UFC’s initial trip to Brazil at UFC Ultimate Brazil 1998. The fight was what Belfort on the map, as the then twenty year old striker punch rushed Silva across the cage in the opening seconds of the fight, earning a forty four second knockout and a permanent place on MMA highlight reels as well as UFC entrance videos. Wanderlei Silva has been out of action since UFC 110 (February 21, 2010) when he earned a victory over Michael Bisping, 20-3, in order to rehab a knee injury which required surgery.
Belfort on the other hand ended up on the wrong side of a highlight reel in his own right, as he fell victim to a rare and crushing front kick to the face in a first round knockout loss to Anderson Silva, 27-4, at UFC 126.
The history between the two fighters should lead to nothing more than Belfort vs. Silva or to make it more intriguing “the Phenom” vs “the Axe Murderer” as both fighters do nothing but live up their nicknames.