A middleweight bout tagged for November’s upcoming UFC 139 event has seen a change in opponents as former UFC champ Vitor ‘The Phenom’ Belfort has had to withdraw do to injury.
Stepping in for the injured fighter will be fellow Brazilian, Wanderlei ‘The Axe Murderer’ Silva (33-11-1, 1NC), who will now meet former Strikeforce champ Cung Le (7-1) on the main card of UFC 139.
UFC 139: Henderson vs. Shogun is scheduled to take place on November 19 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California, and marks the first event by the UFC in the longtime home of former rival, Strikeforce.
News of the change was announced by UFC President Dana White who posted the news via Twitter (@danawhite) on Thursday.
– Vitor is injured and out of San Jose fight. Now Cung Le will fight Wandy!
As far as entertainment, a bout between Silva vs. Le will probably prove more exciting as both fighters will come to entertain the fans instead of looking to move ahead in the middleweight rankings.
Silva returns to the Octagon after a devastating 27-second knockout loss to Chris Leban at UFC 132 last July, putting the former PRIDE champ at 1-3 in his last four Octagon appearances. Previous to the Leben fight, he did earn a unanimous decision against Michael Bisping at UFC 110, while losing matches to Rich Franklin and Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson.
This event marks Le’s debut, who campaigned very hard to get into the UFC to fight in front of his hometown crowd. All of Le’s professional bouts have taken place at the HP Pavilion in San Jose. In his previous two matches, Le went 1-1 in back-to-back matches with Scott Smith, earning a second round KO win after losing their first meeting.