Some people have questioned whether or not Vitor Belfort (19-8) deserves the next shot at Anderson Silva‘s middleweight title. After all, he has never even fought at middleweight within the UFC.
His only fight at all in the UFC since returning to the organization last year was a 195 lb. catch weight bout against Rich Franklin. Of course, he did quickly fold “Ace” with a first round TKO.
Originally, Chael Sonnen had been granted an immediate rematch against “The Spider” after his impressive near-win performance at UFC 117. Then it was revealed he had failed his drug test and the rematch was pulled from the table. That is when it was announced Belfort would get the next shot at Silva instead.
The bout is not yet signed but is expected to take place sometime early 2011. It will not be on the Jan. 1 UFC 125 card though, according to Silva’s manager Ed Soares, who was a guest on The MMA Hour Monday with Ariel Helwani.
Soares revealed that Silva is still only operating at about 80% and can only train “very lightly” right now. He is going to need time to get back to 100% before facing the one known as “The Phenom”.
Soares was asked if he felt it were strange that Belfort was getting a title shot without ever having fought a middleweight bout in the UFC. He said,
“I agree, but on the other hand, who else is out there? Vitor is well-accredited. He was the heavyweight champ (won UFC 12 heavyweight tournament), he was the light heavyweight champ, but I do agree he’s never fought at 185 lbs. in the UFC. So, I see both sides. But out of all the options out there, it makes sense because who else would there be?”
“It could be Okami. It could be Nate Marquardt. But everyone can argue their reasons why. You could say, ‘Hey Vitor is undefeated at 185 lbs. He knocked out Matt Lindland who was the number two ranked guy at the time.’ So you have an argument… it’s justified.”
Soares was also asked if they had to be convinced to take the fight with Belfort. “They’ve never had to convince us to take a fight,” he said. “None of our fighters have ever turned down a fight, never.”
Helwani commended Soares for taking the high road after the news came out about Sonnen’s failed drug test. After all the smack talk Sonnen had done about Soares, Silva and their camp, they have neither gloated or taken any shots at him. Soares explained his position,
“Nothing I could say is going to affect him more than what’s already affected him… Nothing more needs to be said. I feel bad for him. He’s a human being and now he’s not going to be able to fight for a year it seems. There was a lot of money left on the table. The UFC lost, he lost, we lost, everybody lost in this. It tarnished his performance that night. A lot of negative things came from that. That’s like kicking somebody when they’re down and I choose not to do that because he’s a human being and you never know the day or tomorrow when one of us may be in a position similar.”
Check out the entire interview with Soares on the Oct. 4 episode of The MMA Hour.