Former UFC champion Vitor Belfort (19-8) will get another chance to earn UFC gold when he faces middleweight champ Anderson Silva this Saturday in Las Vegas at UFC 126. The bout is the second scheduled match between both men who were to have met last April in Abu Dhabi at UFC 112, but an injury to Belfort forced him off the card.
Belfort has won his last five fights, only the last of which was with the UFC when he beat Rich “Ace” Franklin at UFC 103. Some of his notable opponents from the past include Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz, Alistair Overeem, Dan Henderson and Chuck Liddell.
In a recent interview with Tatame.com, Belfort spoke about the upcoming fight noting that he felt no pressure leading up to this Saturday.
Are you very anxious now, that the fight is coming closer?
I’m happy, pretty glad, rejoicing… There’s no pressure on me. People that know my past has a disadvantage, they don’t know how Vitor improved. The advantage the ones who know me have is that they’ll notice my changes and I believe we should change, not only on our professional lives, but on our personnel lives too with things like parenthood… We make mistakes, we go through things and we learn things during the process, that’s what I believe in.
What do you think the fans are expecting, because since you’ve announced it’d be the fight of the century people started really believing it?
Yeah, they did (laughs). I think it’s cool, I really think it’s a memorable moment, because we both are fighters who’ll be remembered for our history, each one by what we’ve done, Anderson being considered the best pound for pound of the world and I was the youngest champion of UFC in the world, all my history, all my high and low moments… Anderson’s a fighter who grew and kept his level, I’m different, I had many high and low points in my career, people have always speculated, but I really think it’ll be the fight of the century.
I’m happy for Brazil, I’m sure a Brazilian will win (laughs), and that’s good anyway, but I’ll go out there to get this win, I’ll give my best – that’s what I can promise you. I’d like to thank all my fans that support me, that send me messages on my Twitter, that visit my website (www.vitorbelfort.com)… Sometimes there’re fans that take it personally, that start saying things about Anderson, I don’t like it. You can be my fan, you can be his fan, but you have to be respectful, that’s really important as a human being… I know there’s the rivalry, we both want to win, but the respect is greater than that, not only inside the ring, but also outside the octagon.