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Vitor Belfort has withdrawn from his middleweight bout against Matt Lindland at the Affliction: 'Day of Reckoning' event at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 11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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