LAS VEGAS — Fight week has evolved into a mega-event feel. The intensity between main event participants Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort in the middleweight championship match is palpable, there are stars on the card like Forrest Griffin and Rich Franklin, and the buzz around Jon Jones is hard to miss. Continuing the momentum, Friday’s UFC 126 weigh-ins at the Mandalay Bay Events Center were packed, thousands of fans making sure not a single seat went unfilled.
Silva and Belfort gave the fans a preview of what’s to come, engaging in one of the most intense staredowns in UFC history before exchanging words and eventually being separated by UFC personnel.
Silva, playing on Belfort’s recent assertions that he “wears a mask,” in putting on a different persona to intimidate his opponents, took the words literally, wearing a white mask and going nose-to-nose with Belfort before ripping it off and exchanging some words with the former UFC light-heavyweight champion. He and Belfort heatedly went back and forth, with both refusing to back down until being pulled apart.