Filed under: Affliction, UFC
Is Vitor Belfort headed back to the UFC? During Saturday night’s “Ultimate Finale” telecast on Spike, UFC president Dana White told Amir Sadollah during an “Inside the Octagon” segment that he is considering booking the former UFC light heavyweight champion in a middleweight title fight against current champion, Anderson Silva.
“If his head is right, he’s a dangerous, dangerous guy,” White said. “I think that would be a great a match-up.”
Belfort is currently scheduled to face Jorge Santiago at “Affliction: Trilogy” on August 1. With that in mind, I was surprised to hear White talk about a fighter who is currently contracted to another organization. Affliction vice president, Tom Atencio, confirmed with FanHouse on Saturday night that the Belfort-Santiago middleweight fight is still on, but also added that the Brazilian fighter only has one fight remaining on his Affliction contract.
White has openly talked about not being happy with Silva’s last two title defenses, and also spoke about wanting to find better challenges for “The Spider.”
“I just feel like I need to challenge this guy,” he said. “That’s the reason that I put this fight together with Forrest [Griffin]. Forrest is going to make him fight.
“I know [Silva] wants to stay at 185 pounds. So while he’s fighting Forrest, I’m working right now on some other 185-pounders.”
In April, White told Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole that he was working on signing a middleweight fighter that “would blow your mind.” I’m not sure if Belfort’s return to the Octagon would qualify as such a huge shocker, but he would certainly be a nice addition to the mix.
Dana White Hints at Possible Vitor Belfort-Anderson Silva Title Fight originally appeared on MMA FanHouse on Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:53:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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