3 UFC Champions injured, including Anderson Silva - What's next for Vitor Belfort?

[jmt225]

MMA J***** gets the story from Anderson Silva's manager Ed Soares:

"The latest is he's not fighting Jan. 2," Soares said. "That's not going to happen. He won't be ready."

Silva recently had bone spurs removed from his right elbow, and the rehabilitation necessary following the procedure means Silva won't be ready to defend his title in a proposed UFC 108 matchup with Vitor Belfort.

The story of Silva's negotiating tactics and is it/isn't it elbow injury has been well covered over at Bloody*****.com. The real important thing here is that the UFC has already had trouble finding enough main events for the number of shows they want to put on and now both Silva and Lyoto Machida are on the sidelines with injuries and uncertain return dates. Add in Georges St. Pierre and his injured groin and that is three UFC champions who are on the shelf.

Well, this sucks.

Looks like that dream UFC 108 card is not happening after all. Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort is off, and so is Machida vs. Shogun 2.

Now, Machida isn't seriously injured from what I understand; he's just banned from training for 60 days or something like that. So, his rematch with Shogun should still go down, perhaps in February or March.

As far as GSP... that's really not a big deal. His contenders still have fights, so it's not like someone has been waiting in line for a long while to fight him. So, I think we'll definitely get him back in that cage sometime in the Spring or early Summer.

However, the Anderson Silva injury raises an interesting question: What's there to do for Vitor Belfort? He said in an interview recently that he didn't want to fight Anderson Silva right now anyway; that he'd rather get another fight or two under his belt before doing so, so this actually worked out for him as I think he will still be booked for the UFC 108 card.

The question is, who will Vitor Belfort face?

I guess it's obviously since Dan Henderson has been acting like such a greedy prick: Nate Marquardt.

To me, it makes the absolute most sense. Marquardt and Henderson were supposed to fight for the #1 Contendership for Anderson Silva's Middleweight Championship, if he defeated Vitor Belfort that is. And since Anderson is now on the shelf, why not just put Vitor and Nate in that Octagon against one another and the winner of that gets a shot once Anderson Silva is healthy?

What do you think? Is there somebody else you would like to see Vitor Belfort step in the Octagon with? If so, who? Or hell, do you think Vitor should move up to 205? Would that be a better fit for him?

 

[Fizzy]

This does suck your right. Thank god GSP and Machida aren't seriously injured but I am fucking disappointed that Silva and Vitor won't have their fight. This is like a dream fight for me and it sucks it won't happen.

I however do agree with you that he will almost certainly fight Marquardt since Hendo's being a bitch. That fight should be good, but I don't think Marquardt stands a chance if Vitor comes out and performs to his full potential. I'm kinda glad this will force Vitor to have a few more fights though because he has been unstable in the past and it will show that he is here to fucking win. So while i'm disappointed I think it's for the best.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Vitor vs. Marquardt definitely makes the most sense to me as well.

Right now, the Middleweight division is surprisingly the weakest. It appears at this point that if Hendo was going to re-sign with the UFC that he'd be second in line behind the Vitor/Marquardt winner should the fight happen. I would even say he'd have to set in line behind the winner of Wanderlei/Sexyama. At least all four guys are out there training and preparing for fights, whereas Hendo wants his $1 million signing bonus.

The only reason why Vitor's been so "unstable" as you put it is because he was grieving over the kidnapping and murder of his sister, and that must have psychologically played a role in how poorly he performed for awhile there. But with him returning to how he once was, I think that he's definitely in line to destroy Marquardt and give Anderson Silva a real tough challenge for his title.

 

[gd]

Counting Lesnar's illness, that's 4 out of the 5 champs that are out of action, which really sucks for the UFC. It's tough promoting events that aren't for championships, it's just not as big as it could be.

Nate sounds like the best choice to face Vitor, who really needed another fight before getting a title shot. Sure, he's had a great MMA career, but he hasn't done much recently aside from the Frankling fight. Nate also needs another win to prove that he deserves a shot against I guy who has beaten him in the 1st round before. The Middleweight Division is pretty bad though, if Anderson does decide to move up in weight, it'll become more or less a joke.

I think UFC 108 will still be a very good card, even with the loss of a few fights. You still got Lesnar/Carwin, assuming Brock is better by then. Rashad/Thiago is also a very intriguing fight, as well as Dos Santos/Gonzaga. While not as great as it could have been, it'll still be a great event.

 

[Henry Hill]

The Injury bug has really hit the UFC hasn't it? This is incredibly disappointing, especially since I want to see Vitor embarrass Anderson. The obvious replacement is Nate "The Great" Marquardt, and i think it is an interesting match up. Nate definitely has KO power and good ground game, and with Vitor only having one match up under his belt since returning to the big stage, really could use an opponent the caliber of Marquardt to test him. I don't think either man can assume victory on paper, so this would really have a big fight feel and serve as good upcoming main event, with the current state of many of UFC's champions.