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GFORUM Belfort's manager confirms UFC 112 title fight with Silva
January 13, 2010 09:45 AM
by Steven Marrocco on Jan 13, 2010 at 9:00 am ET
Following months of speculation on the fate of a postponed bout between middleweight champion Anderson Silva (25-4, 10-0 UFC) and challenger Vitor Belfort (19-8 MMA, 8-4 UFC), the pieces are finally in place for an April fight.
Fabiano Farah, Belfort's manager, confirmed with MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com) on Wednesday that Belfort meets Silva at UFC 112 on April 10 in Abu Dhabi. UFC president Dana White recently said he hoped the fight would take place on the overseas card.
The middleweight bout originally was scheduled to take place at UFC 108 on Jan. 2 but was shelved when Silva suffered complications from elbow surgery and was unable to train properly for the fight.
Silva recently began hard training again and is "very fired up" to face Belfort, according to manager Ed Soares, who declined to confirm the bout.
Belfort and Silva were on-again, off-again training partners in the original incarnation of fight team Black House formed in Brazil in 2006.
A Tuesday report from Dubai-based newspaper The National said the pair had separately called the renowned grappling dojo Abu Dhabi Combat Club to inquire about training at the facility a full two weeks before the April event.
The club's jiu-jitsu instructor, Carlos Santos, said the conditions would not be the same as a usual UFC event.
"I told them both they should come early because it will be an outdoor event, not indoors like they are used to, and that many factors and conditions will be different for them," he said.
However, White on Wednesday told MMAFighting.com that the UFC's new strategic partners, UAE-based Flash Entertainment, were planning to build a stadium for UFC 112.
Silva most recently appeared in August at UFC 101, where he dominated former light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin in a violent rebound from two lackluster title defenses over Patrick Cote and Thales Leites. Silva now owns a UFC-record 10-fight win streak and has posted stoppages in 12 of his past 13 wins.
Belfort, a former UFC light heavyweight champion, knocked out Rich Franklin in a 195-pound catchweight bout at UFC 103, his first octagon appearance since UFC 51. He has now won five consecutive fights, which included a couple wins in the now-defunct Affliction Entertainment and the U.K.-based Cage Rage promotions.
The latest rumored (and already intriguing) UFC 112 fight card now includes:
* Champ Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort (for middleweight title)*
* Champ B.J. Penn vs. Frankie Edgar (for lightweight title)
* Matt Hughes vs. Renzo Gracie*
* Kendall Grove vs. TBA*
