When Jon Jones turned down a title fight against Chael Sonnen after Dan Henderson got injured, and Lyoto Machida and Mauricio Rua subsequently did the same, it opened the door for Vitor Belfort to step in an fill the void at UFC 152 on Sept. 22, 2012, in Toronto.
That meant leaving Alan Belcher without an opponent at UFC 153 on Oct. 13 in Brazil but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as "The Talent" later revealed he suffered a spinal fracture and was really in need of some extra time off anyway.
When he comes back, though, he's got his sights set on a fight against Chris Weidman, as he revealed in a recent video blog:
"Chris Weidman, I think that fight makes sense. Do I think he's the number one contender? I don't know about that but I think he's definitely up there."
Oddly enough, he's changed his tune on a potential fight against Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva. Even if he gets the fight against Weidman and wins, he doesn't think a title shot makes sense, not for "The Spider," at least:
"I don't see a title shot even happening. Anderson Silva's at a point where he needs to be fighting Jon Jones, he needs to be fighting GSP. If I'm Anderson Silva's manager, that's what I'm telling him to do. Don't mess around with Alan Belcher or Chris Weidman there. I ain't even worried about that."
Well, that's one way to go about it. He's right, of course, but that doesn't make it any smarter for Belcher to admit to as much. As it stands, plans are falling into place for a superfight pitting Silva vs. Georges St. Pierre, provided "Rush" defeats Carlos Condit at UFC 154.
We'll see.
In the meantime, check out Belcher's video blog after the jump.