MMA legends Vitor “The Phenom” Belfort (19-9) and Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva (33-10-1, 1NC) want their next fight to be against each other.
Recently Wanderlei issued the challenge to Belfort via Tatame.com, and “The Phenom” immediately accepted.
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Wanderlei: “I’d give (Vitor Blefort) the number one (on the line to fight me) easily, I’m challenging him … I want him.”
Belfort: “Let’s do it, brother. I accept it. Whatever Dana (White) says I’ll do, I never chose opponents and I won’t do it now. But he made the challenge and I’m accepting it. I just don’t wanna wait for the UFC Rio to come back, I wanna fight first.”
It looks like both fighters want to make this fight happen for the promotions upcoming August event in Brazil and would certainly help to bolster a card that will be brimming with Brazilian fighters. The only thing standing in the way is White and UFC matchmaker Joe Silva.
Both men faced each other early in their careers meeting at the first UFC event in Brazil, UFC: Ultimate Brazil, back in October of 98. Belfort would finish the fight in the first minute by earning a TKO victory in just 44 seconds.
The UFC is trying to book “The Axe Murderer” into a UFC 130 bout with rising middleweight Brian Stann, but Silva has asked to decline the fight noting that he doesn’t want to be considered the “bad guy” by fans. He is coming off a unanimous decision win over Michael Bisping last February at UFC 110 and has spent most of 2010 rehabbing from knee surgery.
Belfort is coming off a knockout loss to Anderson Silva in the headliner of last weekends UFC 126 event in Las Vegas. It was his first loss in seven fights and his first since returning to the UFC. He earned a TKO win over Rich Franklin in a 195 lbs catchweight fight in September 2009. Between the two fights “The Phenom” had been scheduled to meet Anderson a few times but injuries to both fighters prevented it from happening.
The UFC’s return to Brazil has no title designation but will take place on August 27 at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro.