Anderson Silva on Vitor Belfort: ‘He is just another opponent’
The current UFC Middleweight champion Anderson Silva was scheduled to fight UFC and Pride veteran Vitor Belfort at UFC 112 until Belfort had to withdraw due to a shoulder injury. Anderson was interviewed about the bout and his feelings on Vitor. This quote is from an unpublished article taken before Vitor pulled out of the fight;
“First thing he (Belfort) was never my friend. Second, I’m here to fight and whoever is better prepared will win and one of us will lose. I’d be upset if I had to fight Rodrigo, Rogerio, Feijao, Lyoto or even Wanderlei or Shogun, but Vitor? He’s just another opponent like everyone else.” Quote taken from Tatame.com
It is probable that Belfort and Silva will meet at some point to fight. Especially after the two had a face to face in January and things have been getting pretty intense between the two since then. Although Belfort’s pulling out may change the situation. Before the bout was set up Belfort had already publicly said that he feels Nate Marquardt was more worthy of the shot at Silva and now with Belfort out for an uncertain amount of time we may get a new number one contender while Belfort is mending up.
One thing is for sure though, that Silvs is fighting Demian Maia now at UFC 112. All obvious thoughts of the next contender, providing Silva beats Maia, go towards Chael Sonnen after his victory over Marquardt. So where will that leave Vitor upon his UFC return?
