Brazilian MMA legends Wanderlei Silva and Vitor Belfort will face off as opposing coaches on the inaugural season of “The Ultimate Fighter Brazil”, which will begin the casting process this week in Sao Paulo and will premiere on Globo TV on March 25.
The UFC confirmed the news on Tuesday.
The TUF Brazil Finale is scheduled to take place in June, with the coaches expected to fight one another in the Octagon later in 2012.
The two middleweights first fought over a decade ago at UFC Brazil on October 16, 1998. Belfort got the better of “The Axe Murderer” that night, winning via first round TKO.
Belfort (20-9), now 33, went on to eventually become the UFC light heavyweight champion and Silva (34-11-1, 1 NC), now 35, built a very successful career for himself in Japan where he won the PRIDE middleweight title.
Belfort first has a fight coming up on January 14 against Anthony Johnson at UFC 142 and said,”I’m just focusing on this fight, but it’s a great honor to fight Wanderlei again. I see it as a new fight and not as a rematch.”
Silva is coming off an impressive second round TKO win over Cung Le last month. Regarding Belfort, he said, “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. I knew one day we would face each other again, and the time is here. This is one of the biggest rematches of all MMA and I’m very happy to give this to all of my fans.”