UFC 108: Anderson Silva vs Vitor Belfort agree to fight in Las Vegas on Jan. 2

How can you not like this matchup? We can argue til we are blue in the face about who deserves the next shot at Silva but at the end of the day…Silva only has a handful of fights left in the UFC if he is indeed intending on leaving once his contract is up. The fans want to see him in the most exciting matchups and this is one of them. We’ve already seen Hendo and Nate get their chance and they both fell flat on their face. I agree that hanving Hendo/Nate on this card as well would be a nice addition for sure.

The only concern I have with this is wether Belfort can go for five rounds. Since his resurgance we haven’t seen him outside the 1st round which is impressive but it’ll be interesting to see how he handles the deep waters of rounds 3,4, and possibly 5. I don’t see it going that long but anything is possible. I think we will see a fair amount of lulls and feeling each other out in this fight with both guys being very patient and calculationg. I think that training at Couture should help in the cardio area. Other than that I think Belfort has the skills to take this fight to Silva.

I don’t think Belfort will gas. But if it goes to the later rounds and he hasn’t been able to mount any successful offense, he may check out mentally. The think Vitor really has to watch out for is knees. I think his boxing defense and chin are good enough to avoid a KO…unless Silva gets him in the clinch and starts in with those knees that relocated Franklins nasal passages.

The PHENOM will crush the SPIDER once and for all and become the old dominant VITOR he was, but with a new twist.

Great fight, I’m a huge fan of both guys so my loyalties will be divided. Vitor will be Andy’s toughest fight to date, he is very well rounded and is one of the very few fighters that can match Silva’s outstanding striking. His use of Machida karate makes this fight even more interesting and in all likelihood is the closest we’ll ever get to seeing Andy-Lyoto. Both fighters have underrated BJJ so neither has a real advantage on the ground.

The 2 big questions for Vitor will be cardio and mental toughness. He struggled badly to make 195lbs to face Franklin so the weight is an obvious worry and his recent fights haven’t lasted long so cardio is still a question. In the past Vitor has folded when he has been unable to KO his opponent and that could be the difference between the 2.

I can’t wait for this fight, it is a match that I have wanted to see for a long time and will be a privilidge to see happen. I couldn’t think of a better way to end 09 and begin 10. Good luck to both men, let the best fighter win.

The only small problem with a Hendo-Nate fight (which I think will be great) is the fact that it will knock one out of a possible future title shot. In other words, they don’t fight, you have two legitimate contenders. They do fight, one gets knocked out and you have to scrounge to find your next match (like having Kampmann or Swick fight St. Pierre).

Right on, ChefDaddy! I’m tired of having no real challengers for the title in most of the divisions. The last thing we need to do is have them eliminate each other. And if Silva DOES vacate the belt and all the other guys have already fought each other, who faces off for the new belt?

rematches !!!

but vitor is going to lay silva out cold

WAR PHENOM!!

Vitor is going to get absolutely tooled, then his fragile mental toughness will take another huge nose-dive and he won’t be the same for another 5 years.

Silva by total destruction.

There are 3 legitimate title contenders at MW, so to me it makes perfect sense to have Andy fight the guy who he has never faced before in Belfort and put on a big fight between Nate and Hendo so that the winner unquestionably deserves a rematch, no point having one of them wait around for a while or fight a lesser opponent to keep busy when you can put on a huge fight at a similar time to determine the next contender.

Hell yeah i cant wait/

MACHIDA!!!!!!!! He ko’d Franklin quickly, in japan.

That wasnt very quickly.

Hendo came in with 2 pride titles – they were unification bouts not title shots.

PFFF…UNIFICATION and i’m not saying they were wrong to give Hendo the two shots.
Belfort was the affliction and Wamma belt holder(For what that was worth!!), not that any of that should mater though as they are now in the UFC. I didn’t see them give carlos condit or Miller a title shot when they brought them to the ufc?

UFC can give whoever they deem deserving a title shot. My guess is that it was part of the contract that they gave to Vitor.

Comparing WEC WW champs or IFL champs to someone like Vitor isn’t accurate…its right in priciple but in this case we’re talking about Vitor Belfort and an exception should be made. It makes sense as long as Hendo/Nate get the next crack. In fact, Nate/Hendo shold be on the same card imo.

Big difference between Affliction/Wamma and PRIDE, Moon! UFC and PRIDE were equal competitors and universally recognized as the two superpowers in the sport. They merged (or rather PRIDE was subsumed into the UFC). It wasn’t fighters leaving one organization to go to another, it was two equal orgainizations merging into one. Which meant you had 2 standing champs in each division and UNIFICATION matches were necessary to determine who deserved to wear the belt of the combined organization. Unifying those titles was something the fans had dreamed of for a decade. How could anyone be a higher ranking contender in the UFC than the standing PRIDE champion!!! It was obvious. Not to mention that MW was suffering a famine of contenders for Silva.

Thats my whole point guys. Dana can give title shots to whoever he wants and I believe he was right to give Dan his shots, like he was right (and proved to be right) to give Lesnar his shot.

But he gave Dan his shot because he was Dan NOT beacuse he was the pride champ as that meant s&!t to Dana.

The unification thing was just a gimmick, Dan never even came out with his Pride belts. He deserved both fights but lost them both so he and his fans should be the last ones to complain when the likes of Lesnar, Belfort and Carwin get fastracked to title fights. All of those fights were put on for one reason: money. They were big fights and they were easy to promote, whether you like it or not the UFC are there to put on the fights that are easiest to sell to the masses, that is why they are the top MMA promotion and are dominating the PPV market.

Right, and Rich was a more dangerous oppenent than Leban

AND RIch was the former champ, still at the top of his game. Great point, Steve!

To be fair to Brock there was nobody else in the HW division worthy of a title fight. Couture was only going to come back for a big fight and Nog and Mir were already set for TUF 8 and UFC 92, so the only 2 other contenders at the time were Brock, who smashed Herring, the guy Nog beat for a title fight in less convincing fashion, and lost to Mir after a great start, which was enough to earn Mir a title fight, and Werdum, who got KOd in a minute by JDS in his next fight anyway. Rather than waste the TUF series and waste Lesnar with the likes of Coleman, they put on 4 huge fights as well as a successful TV series. Now Brock is the champion, Nog is a top contender, Randy is back at LHW, the UFC made millions and Mir is at the back of the pile, so everyone wins all round (apart from Mir and his 2 fans but who cares about them).

It will not go to the second round… Vitor will never even connect even once and Anderson will knock him out in less time than he needed for Forrest.

vitor only loses to wrestlers and strong guys. silva is a striker and a ground fight. this fight is alot closer than people are calling for.

Vitor is about 100x times better at striking than Forrest.

thatdoesnt mean he’s better at taking a punch

vitor’s never been laid out. hes been stopped by strikes but he’s never been out cold?

Then you should also know that MMA is all about match-ups. Just because fighter A can beat fighter B, doesn’t mean that fighter A has a better chance against fighter C.

I’m not sure his comment was a complete fail..I don’t really like the argument of the guys in pride not fairing well in the ufc…if you look at the orgs when they co existed, i think pride had the better fighters. Some of those guys are getting older now and younger guys are beating them, thats life. If you look at the guys who were stars of the ufc during the pride era, they haven’t done well recently either. Guys like Liddell, Coutoure, Hughes, Arlovski, Sylva…I would say the stars of pride have done better than those guys. And during the arguments of who has better fighters pride or ufc, those were the guys everyone was talking about. I think pride did have more depth in the org when the two co-existed, but I don’t agree with the notion that these new younger guys aren’t on the level of the stars of pride. A lot of them are still young, and have potential

agree with that post ffffff.

Yeah, I love Hendo too, but he is at least 3rd in line to get a title shot, and I’m glad Silvas manager pointed that out. Marquardt and Belfort both deserve it more.

The idea that Marquardt deserves a shot before Hendo is laughable. Both Hendo and Belfort have beaten Franklin. And Hendo has beaten Belfort. Nate hasn’t even fought anybody on that level and barely handled Goveia.

Let Marquardt fight Wanderlei, Hendo fight Thiago, and Randy fight Rashad.

Hendo has two decision wins, one controversial, and KO’d Bisping. Marquardt is 4-1 with four finishes and a controversial loss.

Seems obvious to me.

only obvious is that Nate and Dan has to fight eachother, they can’t both get a shot again…

Completely agree.

Hendo beat FRanklin at 205#(and as you said about Nate-he barely handled Rich and plenty of people feel he lost that and Rich was robbed) and the Belfort win, almost 4 years ago in Pride which has absolutely no bearing now or in the UFC. IF a 4 year old fight have bearing then why don’t we give Yushin first dibs, he was the last one to beat Silva(even though it was a DQ) he is still top 10. We can bring back Ryo Chonan and Daiju Takase(he out wrestled him and then triangle choked him out rather easily), since those are the guy who both last beat him legitamitly-even though it was ages ago!

Spot on Rob.

i dont think it really matters, anderson could fight both hendo and marquardt in the same night, and still beat both of them, without breaking a sweat. I agree vito looks to be a completely different fighter, than in the past, and i this is what the fans want to see, not for anderson to fight two fighters he has allready destroyed. let hendo fight marquardt, then winner gets winner of vito, anderson.

great post, i bet he could too!

The problem is Dana promised Hendo a title shot, then took it away. On top of that, Dana promised Bisping a title shot (Which we all know is laughable) if he beat Henderson.

Henderson is the only man to win a round against Anderson.

Henderson has never been ko’ed.

Henderson is a legend in the sport.

I’m not disappointed in Hendo vs Marquardt, but if you’re comparing the two, Hendo has fought much better opponents in the UFC at two different weight classes.

I don’t know about that. Grappling takes a lot more out of you than striking. I wouldn’t be surprised if he could beat Marquardt and Belfort in the same night, though.

One of the judges had Silva-Leites scored 48-47, another 49-46, so Hendo isn’t the only man to win a round against Andy.

Andy-Belfort
Hendo-Nate

Winners face each other. That makes the most sense to me and will be the easier sell in my opinion. If Silva beats both then he should have one last superfight at 205 or even HW and then retire on a high. Whatever happens I’m excited, I’m a big fan of Andy and Vitor so that should be a great fight and Nate-Hendo is also a great fight, even though I’m not a fan of either.

Sure he does. When he doesn’t want to fight someone, he says he’s taking the rest of the year off to have elbow surgery. Then when someone comes along that he wants to fight, he says there’s nothing wrong with his elbow and he’s ready to fight.

Silva is Dana’s pet. He gets whatever he wants. Dana already told Hendo he’d get the next shot, but then Silva threatens to take 6 months off and VOILA, Dana changes his mind.

Me thinks money was more the deciding factor. As brilliant a fighter as Silva is, he’s not the easiest sell as a main event PPV draw, especially vs guys he’s already dominated…..Hendo and Marquardt. Silva vs Belfort is an easier sell, as the buying public will see Belfort as someone on a roll, fresh off his 1st round destruction of Franklin.

As for any fighter being Dana’s pet(s), it will always be whomever are the most marketable and make the UFC the most $$$$$. Right now, Belfort/Silva is the MW title matchup most likely to capture maximum PPV buys.

Vitor enters the picture and demolishes Franklin something Marquardt and Hendo could not do… the Vitor that fought Hendo in 2006 is not the Vitor we now see. I can see both sides to the argument and why Hendo should get the title shot… bottom line is, this matchup creates some great possibilites also Marquardt n’ Hendo on the same undercard, winner gets next title shot… these are the matchups I wanna’ see… Silva VS Belfort and Marquardt VS Hendo on the same card!

What about Wandy? He’s back from his surgeries and throwing his hat in the MW ring. I think Marquardt should welcome him to the division. Marquardt is a hard sell because he’s never beaten anyone with a name. If he can get past Wandy, then he’ll have proven he’s ready for Dan or Vitor. But if he fights Wandy like he fought Goveia, he’ll get killed and Wandy will be set for a legendary rematch against Hendo or Vitor.

Wandy is great to throw back into the mix but I think he has to sit out a full yr after his surgery if I’m not mistaken?

Wandy’s going through a healing process

dave a have i missed saomething.when has nate fought franklin?

oops… right scott I got my thoughts mixed up… meant to add silva in there… nate vs Silva…

Did you see how relieved he looked when he won that fight! He knows a wrestler with an impenetrable chin is his worst nightmare. He wants no part of Henderson and he’ll fake having surgery to avoid a rematch.

Silva picked him apart with relative ease on the feet and then got his back with little effort. He’ll fake an injury lol there goes the credibility of anything you ever post again, lmfao.

Shonuff did your mother huff gas while she was pregnant with you?

Chris, if your going to be an asshole and insult me, at least respond to what I am talking about. My question was not Hendo being more deservant then Vitor, It was Nate being more deservant then Hendo! I don’t act like my opinion is gold and am certainly not bashing Hendo in the least-READ MY POST. While your at it, if you are having any trouble, here is a link that my son has used in the past to help with his reading comprehension:

http://www.readingcomprehensionconnection.com/

So, if you would like to insult me and take a stab at me and my post again, I asked how do people figure DAN is more deservant then NATE? Then I gave my reasons based on the past 3 fights, that is logic, and hardly opinion. I took facts from the last 3 fights, who was ranked vs who was not ranked, how succesful the win was, and which are the greater accomplishments. Nate beat 2 top 10 fighters. Dan beat nobody relevant, keyword “AT” 185#. Yeah he beat Franklin(hardly at that and in the eyes of many he lost that fight-opinion) for 205 relevance. The fight was at 205, for the 205# division. Does Silva spanking #5 Forrest Griffin hold any bearing in the MW class, no because it did not effect the division. Dan beat Franklin a contorvesial split decsion-if it is relevant Hendo beat 1 ranked fighter at 185-Nate beat 2. Stylistic thing or not Vitor beat Franklin out right- no questions asked, no contorversy. While we are playing keyboard jockey, Franklin’s chin is suspect? Really Franklin has a suspect Chin? How do you figure after 26 fights and all the big, one punch ko artists that Franklin has fought, the only guys to ko or tko him are Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida, and Vitor Belfort. Two champs, one which is the p4p king on many lists and a quick and heavy handed KO artist. That is not suspect in the least, he got ko’d by genuine champs,with heavy hands. His chin is so suspect that it took Anderson 5 or so clean knees, a few head kicks, throw in some punches, and completely breaking his nose like a piece of special fx glass, make him have a suspect chin. On top of that Machida after giving him one of the cleanest head kicks in MMA history still had to follow up with punches, so no suspicion there. Next mediocre is not the way Franklin’s stand up is noramlly described. I am not saying he is on the level with Silva but he is an above level striker overall. 14 wins by KO/tko hardly represents a career of mediocrity. The man has only lost to 3 fighters-Silva, MAchida, and now Belfort. Another thing nowhere in my post did I claim Belfort was going to catch or beat Silva. I know who Silva is and again go back read my post, I talk about Silva not wasting 2 of his last 3 fights on rematches. I also go on to say-if you actually read my post-that after Silva beats Belfort he should fight a top level 205’er and then fight the winner of Nate vs. Hendo.

Lastly, when you call someone a keyboard jockey make sure that is what they actually are. I was a high school wrestler and a lifelong martial artists. I have been training BJJ for the last almost 3 years and have had 3 amatuer fights. So when you want to play

Not sure if first response went through or not or lost in mod but….

Chris..My post was so stupid and you were so interested in insulting someone online to make yourself feel smart, that you still completely missed what my post said. Here is a site that offers reading comprehension strategies that my son uses in case: http://www.readingcomprehensionconnection.com/ Then you can speak about my logic.

I asked how people think Dan Henderson is more deserving then Nate-Not Hendo being more deserving then Vitor. All I did was take Hendo and NAtes last 3 fights, took the facts(which has nothing to do with my opinion) and said that Nate has beat 2 top 10 competitors and a top 20 fighter in his last 3 fights (Facts not opinion). Hendo has beat Bizzzzping , who ranks as low as 18 and as high as 12 on most sites, an unproven lay on my back till you jump in my guard Palahares, and stole a win from Franklin which was for the LHW rankings. Ranking lists don’t even put Franklin on the 185 list anymore, hence his victory over Franklin, irrelevant.

Then I proceed to say that I think Nate and Hendo should have a #1 contenders match, and Vitor fight Silva. I do not say anything about Vitor beating Silva and in fact I say after he beats(“assuming silva wins”) Vitor, then he can fight a top 5 LHW and then fight the winner of Hendo and Nate to finish off his contract. Rather then seeing him waste to of his last 3 fights on rematches. So don’t try to talk about my logic or how stupid I am, when if we used your logic I would just put words in peoples posts and insult them for things they didn’t say. I did not bash any fighter in my post. Where do you get that my “golden opinion” and I were bashing in the post is beyond me.

Rich Franklin and his suspect chin? Really, Rich’s chin is so suspect that the only times he has been ko’d/tko are by 2 fighters who are easily considered the top p4p champs in mma and one fast and heavy handed Vitor. So in 32 prof. mma fights against some of the heavier handed ko guys in mma, he has been ko’d only by 2 of the most elite strikers in the game and Vitor. How is that suspect? Mediocre is not a word I have ever heard used to describe Franklin’s stand up either. He is mos def an above level striker. He may not be elite like Silva or Machida, but he most certainly is not a mediocre level striker. As far as being a keyboard jockey speak for yourself. Like myself there are a number of people that actually fight and train on mania. I was a high school wrestler, a lifelong martial artists, have been taking bjj for the last 3 years and have had 3 amateur fights. So before insulting and making yourself sound like you are the authority on opinion based/blogging etiquette at least make sure you know what your talking about when policing the Internet. Thank you and have a wonderful day!

That is correct dtoto. Good post man.

He did spell it right once than screwed it up the rest of the post. Maybe not English speaking?