Anderson Silva balks at fighting Vitor Belfort

Looks like Anderson Silva is continuing his grandstanding little soap opera. The UFC middleweight champ has toyed with the light heavyweight division yet ruled out a full-on run at the title as long as it’s held by his buddy, Lyoto Machida; he’s claimed to have an elbow injury; he’s denied having an elbow injury; he’s undergonerefused elbow surgery; he’s to fight either of the top two contenders for the middleweight belt, Nate Marquardt and Dan Henderson, who he’s already beaten; he’s hinted at fighting Frank Mir at heavyweight and Mir has hinted right back; Georges St. Pierre has hinted about fighting Silva at middleweight; and now, he’s balking at the previously agreed upon UFC 108 showdown with Vitor Belfort.

Speaking with MMA Weekly, Silva and his manager, Ed Soares, say they’re not ready to sign off on a fight with Belfort even though UFC president Dana White said the deal was in place three weeks ago.

So what’s standing in the way this time? Well, obviously Silva needs to recover and rehab from the arthroscopic surgery he underwent last Monday. But that’s not the whole story. Seems Silva doesn’t think Belfort deserves a shot at the title, either, and I don’t blame him.

“Vitor has not fought in the UFC at 185 pounds,” Soares said. “Now, I know people can say Anderson fought for the belt after one fight, and that’s true, but he fought at 185 pounds. At 195 pounds, he didn’t make weight, at first. So he couldn’t make weight at 195 pounds, but now he’s going to fight for the title at 185 pounds?”

He’s got a point. Belfort fought Rich Franklin at a 195-pound catchweight at UFC 103 and still needed three attempts to make the weight limit.

And as I wrote here, Belfort is not the most-deserving contender, he’s just the sexiest in terms of being able to market the match-up to fans. A Marqurdt vs. Henderson elimination bout is the ideal option, especially given Henderson’s 2007 PRIDE FC win over Belfort. Unless they suddenly decided to recognize Yushin Okami’s top-contender status, of course.

Silva is obviously dissatisfied with the UFC 108 bout. Even if he does recover from surgery in time, what’s to stop him from leveraging it to get what he wants or at least make a point?  He could claim that his recovery time is longer than expected and he won’t be in fighting shape in time, forcing the UFC to scramble to change their marquee event. It wouldn’t surprise me.