Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort Now Targeted For UFC 109
Posted by Justin on Nov 17, 2009 at 12:54 pm ET22 Comments
The already postponed middleweight title bout between Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort has a new target date. The matchup is now targeted to headline the February 6 UFC 109 card. According to MMAJunkie verbal agreements are in place for the new date, though the bout agreements have yet to be signed.
Belfort earned his title shot with a knockout of former middleweight champion Rich Franklin in a September catch weight bout, which also marked his return to the promotion.
Silva last defended his middleweight belt against Thales Leites at UFC 97 last April. His last fight, however, was an August first round destruction of Forrest Griffin in a light heavyweight bout.
Pictured: Vitor Belfort
Tags: Anderson Silva, Vitor Belfort
Loading ...
gonna be a great exciting fight and i know i cant wait to see it.. wonder if we’ll see hendo ringside…
*cageside ^^
Let’s just hope in the coming days we don’t receive new reports saying the Spider has decided to take a few additional months off to recover from surgery or that he thinks Belfort should have to fight Hendo and Marquardt in a 3 way dance to determine the true deserving #1 contender.
By the way, I am only kidding and trying to make light of all the recent canceled fights and champions picking their opponents.
I hope this fight happens and soon.
“earned his title shot…in a September catchweight bout”
Something about that just strikes me as odd…
Guess it’s meant in the way that shogun “earned” his shot and diego “earned” his shot and bj “earned” his shot @ gsp.
I agree that Shogun Rua and Diego Sanchez have sketchy claims to “earning” their title opportunities, but BJ Penn was a former 170 champion, so he at least had “some” cred when he faced GSP…
I will disagree with any claim that Diego Sanchez did not earn his light weight title shot. He soundly beat Joe Stevenson, a top contender in the division who has 7 wins at lightweight. Also his fight of the year candidate performance win over the gate keeper of the light-weight division, Clay Guida. And if I really want to stretch it out, his victory over the last man to challenge for BJ’s belt, Kenny Florian, way back when to win TUF. Diego has looked unbeatable at lightweight and has earned this title shot in my opinion.
As for Shogun, Belfort, Lesnar, Hardy and Penn….(just to name a few) no I don’t think any of these guys have or did earn their respective title shot as much as Diego Sanchez has earned his.
@ markus j – you’re entitled to your Sanchez opinion, but bear in mind in the case of BJ Penn, he had previously held the 170 belt, and was stripped of it.
Seeing as how he never actually lost that title in the cage, I’d say he was entitled to rematches if the champions at the time [Hughes, GSP] were game…
Lets remember a few things about how Rua got to fight for the title (the memory of many is lacking)……. at the time the #2 LHW in the world Rampage Jackson decided against fighting Machida, he opted to fight the #3 LHW Rashad Evans in Dec after coaching a season of TUF.. the #4 LHW in the world Forrest Griffin was signed to fight the #1 MW in the world Anderson Silva in a LHW bout… So without anyone to fight Machida @ UFC 104, Dana asked Rua if he wanted to fight Machida, Rua accepted and brought forth on helll of a fight, soo due to the choices that certain fighters made, Machida v Rua happend @ UFC 104…
Diego, was loud and was calling for a bout with BJ and with his wins he gets a shot, It doesn’t settle well with me but hey whatever….
Penn went to a Split Decision with GSP and some felt that Penn won that bout, Many fans were asking the UFC to make this “SuperFight” and ZUFFA obliged them, it was a great business decision by ZUFFA and honestly most of us were VERY PUMPED for that fight, furthermore BJ Penn is a former WW champion and current LW champion so it was definitly a champion v champion bout, just like Hendo v Jackson, Hendo v Silva so on and so forth..
yeah i reckon the tru #1 contender shuld be the winner of chael and nate just imo but damn glad its happing..exciting as hell.. agree markus J i hope the injury virus dusnt spread catch one of these dudes
If that fight was at 185 nobody would be saying boo, and i’m sure it would have been at 185 if not for Franklin being stuck in no mans land. Also I think that Vitor’s last 2 performances at 185 in Affliction the methodical destruction of Terry Martin, And the murder of Lindland. I say he deserves his shot, but in the same breathe no more so then hendo and nate.
Good point oldman,
IMO Hendo is the #1 guy but whatever.
FR702,
I like that you said BJ vs GSP 2 was a “champion vs champion” fight because it certainly imo wsn’t #1 contender vs gsp. I understand that BJ was the ww champ and then got stripped of it. But does anyone remember hughes vs bj 2? where bj got his shot and lost? So when speaking of reasons for why he got a shot @ gsp, that one doesn’t make much sense to me.
The shogun scenario is imo exactly what fr said.
Diego’s shot could be argued both ways. Especially since we’re talking about the lw division. I think after kenny there was no clear cut #1 contender @ lw so the only guy that truly made sense for the division “rankings” and money was diego. I also believe that wether you’re a diego fan or not, he’s going to bring things to his fight against bj that no one ever has brought to bj @ lw ever. not saying he’s going to win, just saying there’s a real chance and that it’s going to be everything we thought bj vs kenny was going to be and maybe better
IDK what is wrong with you guys. This is a great match-up. This is honestly the first time i have been happy to see anderson fight at MW and the first time since Hendo that im not %100 sure he’s gonna win. It wasn’t interesting to watch hime fight cote or lietes because you knew he was going to spank them. Its like the GREATNESS (gsp) vs Hardy. Hardy deserves but i’d rather see rumble get it if he wins. Its not exactly who deserves it but who actually has a Legit chance at beating this guy. I just too strongly believe that Anderson would tear thru Marquardt…. AGAIN. Anderson is way to fast and his skill level in every department is just on another level then Marquardt. I think hendo could give Anderson another run for his money but we all ready seen that.
Im porbably the only one that Loves this match up and thinks this should be Andersons next match. Plus this subject has been beat to death.
@jchol- So do you think that if Franklin and Belfort weighed 10lbs less the outcome of the fight would have been different???
Not really sure I understand the point of your question, as it has little or no bearing on the thread topic.
And seeing as how Belfort has yet to fight at 185 in the UFC, I’ll actually have to see him make that weight within the UFC before considering if the fight would have went differently at 185…
ARE YOU SERIOUS!!!! The point is that you are making it seem like a dramatic difference from 195 to 185. ITS 10lbs!!!!!! Im pretty sure he would have kicked franklins ass the same way he did at 195. Im pretty sure if he could do that to the second best MW in the world he is a legit 185 pounder.
If you don’t think cutting ten pounds is a big difference why don’t you ask Anthony Johnson about those six pounds he didn’t cut in his last fight and how big a difference it would have made to him to have to actually lose all that weight.
okay that was completly off my point. Im saying that its not like a fighter at 195 is going to cut down to 185 (something he has all ready done before) and all of a sudden suck. Im just saying its easy to judge what a 195lber would do at 185.
Plus im not talking about a fighter failing to make weight. Its just that if two people fight at 185lbs and fighter a kicks fighter b’s ass, its not change too much. Exspecially when vitor and franklin are the same frame.
Finally im just saying you guys are making it seem like Vitor has no cred becuase he fought at 10lbs over the weight class anderson is in.
Just to be clear, I’m not trying to say that Vitor Belfort had NO cred, I’m just saying that Vitor Belfort hasn’t any 185 cred in the UFC. Yet.
Or more specifically, that Belfort hasn’t the cred to claim [or allow Dana to reasonably claim] he has “earned” or “is deserving of” a 185 title shot in front of Nate Marquardt…
Let’s see if this actually happens. I’ve also heard rumours that 109 is to have Couture vs. Coleman headline. After the last few months, I’m not going to believe too much until not only it’s posted on UFC.com.
In fact, even then I won’t believe it until I hear “Good evening, I’m Mike Goldberg along with my partner Joe Rogan and we would like to welcome you to (such fights)”.
Ya Hendo or Marquart should get another shot before Vitor but im not going to complain. At least the champ is finally going to defend his belt and i think if he wants to fight in both weight classes he should man up and fight almost twice as much. right now it feels like the ufc is lacking some key championship fights. I cant weight for the Diego, BJ fight. I hope Diego represents for his fans and his hispanic race here in the 505.(Albuquerque,New Mexico)
Considering Dan Henderson isn’t under contract with the UFC, I think it would be safe to leave him out of all conversations until that minor detail has been changed.
Very strange situation Silva is still in btw… What if he destroys Vitor @ 185? What the hell then? I hate being confused by my loverbo… I mean Silva’s 185/205 affair haha i really think he should pick one and stick with it!