Outside Source
Nearly 27 years after their first meeting, Belfort and Silva are going to run it back in the boxing ring. | Marcelo Alonso/Sherdog.com
One year after bringing in Chael Sonnen to Brazil to revive his feud with Anderson Silva under boxing rules, Spaten Beer is once again investing in an MMA rivalry.
This time around, the Spaten Fight Night 2 main event will be a boxing match between UFC Hall of Famers Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva on Sept. 27 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Sherdog confirmed the bout with sources close to both fighters after an initial report from MMAFighting.com. Both Belfort and Silva are expected to be in Sao Paulo this weeked for an official announcement.
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As with the Sonnen-Anderson fight, the official announcement, including statements from Silva and Belfort, will be made next Sunday on Fantástico, the highest-rated program on Brazilian television. The rematch takes place more than 25 years after the first meeting between the two, which occurred in 1998 at UFC 17.5, the first UFC event held in Brazil. On that occasion, under MMA rules, Belfort won by knockout in just 44 seconds. After the fight, both left the UFC and moved to Pride Fighting Championships, where Silva quickly won the belt after defeating Kazushi Sakuraba. That began a stretch where “The Axe Murderer” was widely considered the greatest light heavyweight in the world for almost five years.
Shortly after his victory over Silva, Belfort debuted in Pride, losing to Sakuraba. He subsequently won four fights in the Japanese promotion and returned to the UFC in 2002, losing to Chuck Liddel in a fight that would have earned him a title shot against Tito Ortiz. In 2004, however, “The Phenom” managed to win the light heavyweight belt by defeating Randy Couture, but he ended up losing the title in the rematch six months later.
Visceral Rivalry
Unlike the fight between Sonnen and Anderson, who are now cordial and ended up having a friendly fight that angered fans in 2024, Belfort and Silva don’t really like each other. Since their Pride days, Wanderlei has always said he wanted the chance to hurt Belfort badly in a rematch.
Their chance to face each other at the top of their game came in 2012, on the first season of “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil,” when they were both coaches and had several disagreements during filming. The two coaches were even scheduled to be in the main event of UFC 147. However, a broken hand forced Belfort out of the fight. Silva was defeated by Rich Franklin, a last-minute replacement, in one of the most talked-about fights of that event.
Months after being inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame, the “Phenomenon” and the “Axe Murder” at 48 and 49 years old, respectively, will face each other again — this time under boxing rules. It will be Wanderlei’s debut in the sport, while Belfort already has two significant victories, against Evander Holyfield (2021) and Ronaldo Souza (2023), in previous appearances.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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