Belfort Out of Affliction “Day of Reckoning” Bout Against Lindland
Vitor “The Phenom” Belfort has been forced to withdraw from his scheduled bout against Matt Lindland at Affliction “Day of Reckoning” due to a hand injury, according to MMA Weekly:
“Vitor is out, I spoke with him I think yesterday and he told me,†said [Affliction vice president Tom] Atencio. “Actually, it was on Tuesday we had a conversation for about an hour or so, and yeah, I guess he broke his hand in two places is what he told me and he had been having 2, 3 and 4 opinions on it. He finally got the opinion that he wanted I guess and they told him to step out for a while.â€
Now, Atencio and the Affliction team will make an effort to find Lindland a new opponent as quickly as possible.
Speculation has run rampant that current Elite XC welterweight champion, Jake Shields, may be the fighter Affliction is courting to face Lindland on the Oct 11 show, but Atencio had no comment.
“I don’t confirm anything until I have all the papers signed,†he simply said.
Belfort defeated Terry Martin via second-round knockout at Affliction “Banned” while Lindland topped Fabio Negao via unanimous decision at the late-July event.
Tags: matt lindland, Vitor Belfort
It is definitely Jake Shields. He is a much more relevent opponent for Lindland and would be a significant acquisition for Affliction, being the only top 10 WW not in the UFC. I like this Lindland / Shields better than Lindland / Belfort personally. I was already going to buy this card; it just keeps getting better.
The card is falling apart slowly. Time to spend some more money on over the hill fighters. Tito now has leverage for his big pay day.
Sounds to me like shields may sign for one fight. Until I hear about a multi-fight contract, I wouldn’t call it an acquisition.
Scrap the card now and put the money in undervalued stocks Affliction staff. Shields is great but Shields Lindland is not top dollar for casual fans…
Damn, i really wanted this fight. I hope Affliction now signs some top free agents like Mark Hunt, David Loiseau, the overeems, Kevin Randleman, etc. Plus it would be cool to see guys like Nick Diaz, Frank Trigg, Robbie Lawler fight on those cards. Plus if they needed fighters have like a king of ring event where 16 unknown fighters from each division enter and compete, you would basically have instant stars right of that, and a lot of potential fights.
I don’t know how you can say loiseau,diaz,and top free agent in the same sentence.And carefull what you say about shields everyone kouch might be watching.lol
This is going to be an on going problem for Affliction until they get a larger roster. You can’t have the same guys constantly fighting because it’s so easy to get injured in this sport (obviously).
Linland v Lutter???
Marko, I agree with you about having a Grand Prix. They should hold one for each weight class for the WAMMA titles. Each PPV can hold a round or two. Invite fighters to enter from all promotions. Eventhough a UFC fighter would probably win every title, Dana won’t let his fighters compete.
If UFC starts to lose its top fighters to Affliction, because they don’t resign their multi fight contracts, things may change.
If Jake Shields fights on this card that will add credibility to Affliction. They are suppose to fight for Affliction title. Why not the WAMMA?
Nick Diaz was suppose to be in a DREAM title match, I’m sure he’d fight on Affliction. Atleast he’d actually get paid, and in US dollars.
I’d watch Shields vs. Lindland. If the Linland that showed up against the tomato can the last time, Shields will own him.