With the UFC travelling to Brazil this week to make an announcement regarding UFC 147, UFC President Dana White dismissed the idea of possibly stripping UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
It is believed that the main event between Chael Sonnen and the champion will be postponed and relocated to Las Vegas, where the two middleweight contenders will be placed on the UFC 148 card, tentatively scheduled for July 7th.
It was reported that the notion of facing Sonnen in Las Vegas had not sat well with Silva and he refused to fight him.
White cleared up the rumor during the UFC 145 post-fight press conference this past weekend:
“That is such a f***ing lie. It’s crazy. Wherever that came from, if it was a media source or whoever said it, it’s an absolute flat-out lie. Anderson and I haven’t had a problem about this fight.”
The event has been forced to change venues due to a United Nations conference scheduled for the same week, putting the main event in jeopardy.
It still expected that UFC 147 will commence, but co-headliners Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva are likely to replace Sonnen and Silva in the main event.
White did not reveal too many details, but he said they are still planning on holding the card in Brazil on June 23rd.
“We had the whole arena mapped out and ready to go. We were pumped and ready for that,” he said.
“The whole thing just fell apart. We’re working on it still at this minute.”
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