Anderson Silva's elbow is still giving him fits and has forced the UFC middleweight champion it out of his title defense for the second time against challenger Vitor Belfort. The two were scheduled to square off at UFC 109 on Feb. 6 in Las Vegas. News of Silva's withdrawal was first reported by MMAjunkie.com.

According to the report, Silva may not be able to fight until April. The healing process for Silva's elbow has been slow. The pound-for-pound great had surgery to remove bone chips from his right elbow in October.

Silva and Belfort were first set to meet at UFC 108 on Jan. 2, but that bout was scrapped due to Silva's aforementioned surgery.

Some have suggested that Silva's latest pullout is actually a ploy to avoid a showdown with Belfort and wait until a more worthy title challenger emerges. Silva and his camp have openly expressed their disapproval of the UFC's decision to award Belfort a title shot due to the fact that Belfort has yet to compete at 185 pounds in the UFC. However, despite the camp's resistance, Silva believes it would be a good fight and has agreed to face Belfort on a number of occasions.

Silva last saw action in a lopsided victory over former UFC light-heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin at UFC 101 in August.

There has been no word yet if the UFC will give Belfort a new opponent for UFC 109 or wait to match him against Silva when the champ eventually returns.

Belfort recently picked up his fifth straight win by scoring a highly impressive first-round TKO over former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin in his Octagon return at UFC 103.

Silva vs. Belfort was expected to headline UFC 109 but now that the bout has been scrapped, a light-heavyweight bout between UFC Hall-of-Famers Randy Couture and Mark Coleman will likely move into the main event slot.

Other bouts expected for the event include Nate Marquardt vs. Chael Sonnen, Matt Serra vs. Frank Trigg and Dan Miller vs. Demian Maia.