More news out of Dana White’s trip to the UK as the UFC President confirmed a middleweight tilt that will likely serve as a title eliminator. The proposed bout will see Strikeforce champion Luke Rockhold take on Vitor Belfort. While White remained mum as to a date, venue and platform, it will likely be part of the UFC on FX series.
Rockhold (10-1) has been on the shelf for quite some time due to a shoulder injury which kept him out of the Strikeforce finale. The AKA product most recently defeated Tim Kennedy in July to retain his middleweight title. The Santa Cruz native comes into the UFC positioned as one of the top contenders, hoping a win over Vitor Belfort can earn him a shot at Anderson Silva.
Belfort (22-10) recently played spoiler to Michael Bisping, knocking out the Brit and sending him to the back of the line as far as contention goes. While it would appear that a win over Rockhold could give “The Phenom” a chance to redeem himself against Anderson Silva, it’s Jon Jones that the Brazilian has his eyes on.
MMAFrenzy will release details as they become available.
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Am I the only one who wants to see a Silva Belfort 2?
Only if he beats Rockhold though.
What silva you talkin about.. anderson or wanderlai…
belfort would lose again to anderson and would blast wanderlai…
wanderlai wont be around to much longer after he gets blasted by brian stann
Lol welcome to the ufc. i love vitor in any fight
That would be some shiit if Anderson KO’d him with the same kick.
………..again in Brazil…….. what’s next, GSP fighting in Canada again?……. oh yeah, he’s already booked to fight GSP in Canada…… lame….
While I understand that guys like Anderson Silva can get some special treatment and get booked in Brazil from time to time, as well as GSP, guys like Belfort ALWAYS fighting in Brazil is not fair to the other guy. Belfort is not a Champion, he hasn’t earned that right like Aldo, Silva and GSP have….plus, enough with this already, if Brazil and Brazilians are truly “real MMA fans” they won’t mind if it’s a non brazilian headlining the event…
Really, this is getting old, there’s nothing wrong with having as many cards in Brazil as possible, but day um, book a non Brazilian as the headline for once. Canada has hosted numerous events where there have been Non Canadians headlining, why can’t they do the same with Brazil?
ok trolls….. come get some…….
*to fight Nick Diaz
GSP main-events Montreal (and Toronto once) because people there will pay more and fill a bigger arena than in any other place in the world. I’m guessing the same goes for Belfort. He’s been around for a while and has a nice resume.
It’s all about economics.
God forbid a Non Brazilians headline an event in Brazil for the self proclaimed “most passionate MMA fans”…. if they are so passionate, test it by pitting 2 Non Brazilians as the headliner. I’m sure if those fans are as “passionate” about MMA as they claim to be, the event will do well no matter what.
Canadian MMA Fans > Brazilian MMA Fans
There’s only one fighter in Canada capable of headlining a PPV and he hasn’t fought outside Canada since 2010. Canadian events have also seen drops in attendance lately. Having local fighters headline cards is normal.
@ChrisLeslie
I’m all for having local fighters in those cards, they do the same here in the states. I’m mostly referring to headliners. For me personally, it just becomes annoying. I bet there are a lot of guys who would like to headline an event outside of the US. Why does it always have to be a local guy? For specific events such as GSP vs Shields, it was different because that was a 50k seat venue and they needed the local hero as the headliner to make that work. Same would have been with Silva vs Sonnen II had that event taken place in a stadium in Brazil.
But for “normal” non “huge” events, they shouldn’t JUST put local guys as the headliners. That’s my point.
Nobody really cares what the fighters want if it does not sell tickets, C.R.E.A.M. always applies here. 17 foreign events have happened or have been scheduled since the start of 2012, of those cards, only four did not involve a fighter with close regional ties in the main or co-main event. All four involved either got a title fight, or a tournament.
Lol they do amazing in Brazil and have many Brazilian fighters capable of headlining cards. Why not have them headline? To test if the fans are passionate? Doesn’t make any sense at all haha.
And guess what if Canada had a dozen fighters capable of headlining then every fight in Canada would be headlined by a Canadian fighter. Unfortunately atm we only have 1…….
Yes they do “amazing” in Brazil but ONLY because a local guy is the headliner. Try having 2 Non Brazilians headline the event and we’ll see how “amazing” they do.
The UFC really needs to start mixing things up in terms of who headlines each event. Because, all this about local guys ALWAYS headline events has gotten old and annoying fast! Fill the under card with local guys, go nuts, but the headliners, shouldn’t ALWAYS have to be locals.
that fight will be badass!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!