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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Wanderlei Silva will no longer be meeting Brian Stann at UFC 130 this May, so the door is now open for him to meet the man he called out earlier this week: Vitor Belfort.
Silva, who lost to Belfort over 12 years ago at the UFC's first and to date only event in Brazil, said on Friday that he wanted to meet Belfort again when the UFC returns to Brazil this August. Belfort has now responded to that call-out in comments made to Tatame.com.
"Let's do it, brother. I accept it," Vitor said. "He's a great athlete, a great champion, and it would be a pleasure to fight him. It'd be a highly anticipated fight, very important for the sport.
"Whatever Dana [White] says I'll do, I never chose opponents and I won't do it now. But he made the challenge and I'm accepting it. I just don't wanna wait for the UFC Rio to come back, I wanna fight first."
With the challenge accepted, it's now just up to the UFC to put the fight together. If Silva gets his wish it will come this August in Brazil, and if Belfort gets his the fight could come earlier.
Penick's Analysis: This would be a huge fight for the UFC to put together. They're both willing, so hopefully we get to see this rematch that is 12 years in the making. If Silva's not still injured the UFC could put that fight together by early this summer, but if Belfort is willing to wait until August, this would be a great fight for the fans in Brazil. Either way, I just want to see the fight, so I hope they can get it done.
[Wanderlei Silva art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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