Vitor Belfort withdraws from October 11 Affliction bout against Matt Lindland
by Jesse Holland on Aug 15, 2008 4:03 AM EDT
27 comments
Easy come, easy go.
Vitor Belfort has withdrawn from his middleweight bout against Matt Lindland at the Affliction: 'Day of Reckoning' event at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 11 according to MMA Weekly Radio.
"The Phenom" sustained a broken hand in his 185 pound debut, when he stopped Terry Martin in the second round at Affliction: "Banned" with a nice combination that was set up by a flying knee.
From Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio:
"Vitor is out, I spoke with him I think yesterday and he told me. Actually, it was on Tuesday we had a conversation for about an hour or so and yeah, I guess he broke his hand in two places is what he told me and he had been having 2, 3 and 4 opinions on it. He finally got the opinion that he wanted I guess and they told him to step out for a while."
Atencio doesn't sound very sympathetic based on those comments. Perhaps Belfort may have underestimated the seriousness of his injury when committing to the Lindland bout. He insisted in an interview with Tatame following the Martin fight that he would be fine and ready to rock on October 11.
Regardless, Atencio now has to start doing some major field recruiting to find Lindland a suitable opponent. Like Belfort, "The Law" was victorious on July 19 when he took home a unanimous decision win over Fabio Negao.
The rumor mill has current Elite XC welterweight champion, Jake Shields, defecting to Affliction (for at least one fight) to face Lindland on the October 11 show, but Atencio had no comment.
Affliction "Day of Reckoning" takes place on October 11 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada and features the main event of Josh "The Babyface Assassin" Barnett (23-5) vs. Andrei "The Pitbull" Arlovski (13-5).
The winner is expected to meet WAMMA heavyweight champion and Russian Tyrannosaur Fedor Emelianenko (28-1) for the heavyweight strap at Affliction’s third event.
The remainder of the card could be finalized by as early as next week
Stay tuned.
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he is a great in the ufc and he had ome good fights.
by mikeybear on Aug 15, 2008 9:11 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Lol UFC rejects can beat almost anyone at any other promotion other than the UFC itself so I think its funny that you say that. Anyway everyone saw this coming but I might be the only one who thinks its a good thing. I love the Belfort of old and I don’t want him losing to Lindland because he has only one hand to punch him. Lindland is cocky and boring and I have no interest in seeing him beat Belfort. Shields on the other hand could be an interesting fight. I also think there might end up being a problem with Barnett fighting Arlovski if something happens in his match against Tank. I think its a wrestling match so all should be fine and Barnett will probably end it early but I really hope he doesn’t blow it because something like that would put the nail in the coffin of Affliction. You lose the draw power of a legitimate number one contender match of Barnett AA, you lose Belfort, and also Tito’s drawing power and your company will be gasping for air. Good luck to Affliction cause things might only get worse from here.
by Cogito Ergo Sum on Aug 15, 2008 10:46 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
GladI’mNotYou – Ah, predictable. The political correctness on this forum gets thick sometimes. Say anything that calls into doubt a non-UFC promotion’s next event, suddenly you’re a UFC nut-hugger. It’s the old Pride vs. UFC debate all over again. Very old and very played. Try something more original.
by MMACrossfire on Aug 15, 2008 11:44 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
RedDog – You’re obviously aching for a fight. If you’ve got any real opinions on this subject (instead of borderline trolling), please chime in. BTW, I wasn’t coming to your defense in my comments to GladI’mNotYou. I’m just sick of the old worn out arguments that I’ve heard for years, except that it used to be Pride, and now it’s Affliction (or fill in the blank). Your comment is even more worthless than the “us vs. them” garbage that pops up on the MMA forums.
by MMACrossfire on Aug 15, 2008 11:51 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
If you knew it wasn’t true, then why are you getting so pumped? Calm down there friend.
by RedDog on Aug 15, 2008 6:44 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Who are you dissin with that comment? Lindland, Belfort, Arlovski or Barnett?
by cmon_chokehim on Aug 15, 2008 5:22 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
i saw this coming… Belfort needs to teach insted of fight, he’s not done but he not getting any better.
by mikeybear on Aug 15, 2008 9:10 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Affliction is shite! hopefully they’ll fold soon
by braveheart on Aug 15, 2008 6:10 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
why would you hope for affliction to fold?
a real mma fan would want them to succeed because it means more shows, more mma fights for the fans to watch and more opportunities for fighters to make a living.
theres more to mma than ufc.
by blakemore on Aug 15, 2008 8:31 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
blakemore – Enough with the self-righteousness, dude. Whoever braveheart is, he hates Affliction. Whatever. His loss. But stop with the boring “real mma fan” crap.
by MMACrossfire on Aug 15, 2008 11:46 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
As soon as it was announced that Vitor was fighting again, I knew that he would be able to make it. It was known that he BROKE his hand during the Martin fight. So it this really a surprise to Tom A and Affliction.
Also, real bright move on Tom’s part….that is talking shit on 1 of your 15 employees and one of your top names
by fightfan on Aug 15, 2008 6:10 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
This card is slowly deteriorating. They really need to book the Tito vs. Babalu fight if they want to sell some ppv’s!
by john on Aug 15, 2008 6:33 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Bad communication between the two sides. Fedor broke his hand and the post fight doctors had no issues finding that out, so what is the big problem with Belfort, and like Attencio says, why did it take 4 doctors to find a fracture? Vitor has always had all of the physical tools needed to succeed, unfortunately, he was never quite there mentally. (Insert GSP joke here)
Just the other day someone suggested that Sheilds move up to MW to fight Lawlwer for the MW belt if there is no more competition out there for him. I find this very interesting. To me it souunds like Jake is truely seeking out the best competition that he can, instead of avoiding it. Shields/Lindland would be a very interesting fight. Believe it or not, they do have pretty similar styles outside of the clinch. Decent hands, strong wrestling, solid submissions.
In the MW division, who do you guys have ranked higher, Lindland or Lawler? I gotta give the nod to Lindland and believe that if they fought, he would keep Lawler in the clinch or on the ground.
by ViolentMike on Aug 15, 2008 9:11 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Lindland would beat Lawler, but Robbie is probably the better fighter. Maybe I am just Biased cause Lindland is so damn boring (just like a politician).
I have a feeling that the top fighter that was offered to fight Sheilds in another organization is “Mach” in DREAM since Diaz wont fight for them until they SHOW HIM THE MONEY! I wouldnt mind seeing Mach vs. Diaz!
NO WAY that ElitexC will match up Sheilds vs. Lawler! Elite lacks solid fighters, except for its champions. THey will keep building up their champs against Watered down competition because thats the best they can do. No way they diminish 1 of its champions by matching the up with another one of their champions, because 1 would obviously have to loose!
As much as I would like to see it happen, HIGHLY DOUBT IT!
Yeah I respect Jake for looking for top competition, but he should have signed with the UFC because he is a welterweight and all the top ww fight in the UFC. He was aware of the No Cross promotion policy of the UFC so he made his bed, DEAL with it! If you want to fight at welterweight and face top competition, the only place for u is in the UFC. His training partners can still face good comp without being in the UFC because Nick and Gilbvert fight at lightweight, and most of the top lightweights aren’t even in the UFC. unless Jake moves up or down a weight class, he wont be facing anyone good!
Only good comp for Sheilds is:
Semtex
Mach Sakurai
Eddie Alvarez (but I think he will stay at LW)
by john on Aug 15, 2008 10:47 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
i say that shields should move up to 185 to get some real competiton and..shazam!… it happens. lucky guess? i think not!
by b.w. on Aug 15, 2008 2:01 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
No one said he was moving up to middleweight!
by john on Aug 15, 2008 2:55 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
DId you read the cliffnotes??? Right now he is rumored to be the leading candidate to fight Lindland at the October Afflcition event.
by ViolentMike on Aug 15, 2008 4:55 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
JOHN i commented that shields should move up to 185 and fight lawler,or le or f.shamrock cuz he didnt have any real competiton at 170 w/elite. then 5 minutes later it was all over the net that he hadnt signed the deal with alessio and was in the works to fight at mw in another org. dont hate, appreciate!
by b.w. on Aug 15, 2008 5:51 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I dont believe it! I wouldnt mind it, but I dont believe it!
I think Lindland is too strong for Sheilds. I am a big fan of Jake and I hope he doesnt take this fight!
My advice to Sheilds would be to stay away from Llindland, ask your buddy Diaz if he is going to fight Mach Sakurai or not, and if not, Jake himself should fight Sakurai for the dream title!
by john on Aug 15, 2008 5:52 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I hope Affliction to put together a good card….I do want them to succeed…MMA is not just UFC…but a monopoly anywhere can just take to certain place…
competition is always good and fans and fighters will see the results…better and more shows and better pay for fighters.
by Anlienq on Aug 15, 2008 9:05 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Affliction is now officially on it’s way out.
by O damn he got caught on Aug 15, 2008 9:41 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
They have already given us Fedor vs. Sylvia and now we get to see Arlovski vs. Barnett! Unlike Braveheart, I am not content with seeing one mediocre UFC card a month with about 2 fights I care about. I like seeing the world’s best heavyweights fight each other, and Affliction intends on showing this. They have the first deep HW division since Pride FC went under (I will argue it is better because they have Arlovski, Sylvia, and are working on EVENTUALLY getting Couture)
One organization can not sustain all of the good fighters it the world, unless they showed them all once a year, so get over it.
by El dirte on Aug 15, 2008 10:12 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Shouldn’t he have been cleared BEFORE they set the fight…durrgh…
by DirtbagHtr on Aug 15, 2008 11:58 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
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