According to a UFC press release and subsequent tweet from Zuffa CEO Lorenzo Fertitta, Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva are set to coach on The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil.
This comes on the heels of some rumors that these two could coach, and now they will coach, and fight, at some point in the future.
The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil is likely to lead the way for many new seasons of the show, as Dana White envisions multiple countries running The Ultimate Fighter simultaneously, and at the end, having all the winners from each country fight, creating a “TUF World Cup.”
Wanderlei Silva is coming off one of the biggest wins of his career—it was career-saving, in fact—as he knocked out Cung Le in the second round at UFC 139 and earned fight of the night in the process.
Vitor Belfort will enter coming off a devastating first-round knockout over Yoshihiro Akiyama, which earned knockout of the night honors during UFC 133.
Both of these fighters are Brazilian MMA legends and will certainly prove to be fantastic coaches and ambassadors for The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil.
This won’t be the first time these two have met, as they first faced off at UFC 17.5, where Belfort knocked out Silva in just 44 seconds. Ever since that time, Wanderlei has wanted a rematch. Now he’ll get it.
According to the press release, the format for the show will not be like the new FX format but will be more similar to the early Spike format, with six weeks of filming as opposed to 13, and no live fights every Friday night.
The show is set to premiere on March 25, and it will be every Sunday night on Globo. The finale will be sometime in June, but according to Dana White, “we don’t know where that’s going to be yet.”
Belfort was originally scheduled to face Anthony Johnson at UFC 142, however, Johnson’s status for that card is now currently in limbo.
UPDATE: Vitor Belfort vs. Rumble Johnson is still on for UFC 142. Vitor will coach against Wanderlei win or lose.
Stay tuned to B/R MMA for all The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil updates, as well as updates for everything else MMA.
Tim McTiernan is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. For the latest news on everything MMA, follow me on twitter @tmt2393.
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