Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort will not happen at UFC 108
by Natalia Baage on October 31, 2009

The much-anticipated middleweight title fight between Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort has been scrapped for UFC 108 on Jan. 2.

Silva recently had elbow surgery to remove bone spurs from his arm.  While his rehabilitation is going well, Ed Soares, his manager told MMAJunkie.com that he will not be ready to fight by early January.

According to Soares, while there is no set date for Silva to return to action, but when Silva is ready to fight again, his next bout will still be against Belfort.

"Anderson's recovery is going really, really well," he said.  "He's coming back, and his recovery is doing really good.  His physical therapy is going really well.  He's getting better range of motion.  He'll be back 100 percent for sure."

Soares does not believe that Belfort has yet earned a title fight against Silva, but still said that the Silva vs. Belfort will be a good one.

"Whoever the UFC puts in front of us, we'll fight," he said.

It is rumored that the main event for UFC 108 will be replaced by a heavyweight title fight between Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin.  The Lesnar vs. Carwin fight was originally supposed to happen at UFC 106 on Nov. 21, but Lesnar withdrew due to illness.

 |  (31) Comments JujitsWho: PUSSY!!!! I hate this guy Little_Kang: Him and Machida are chickens arlovskiviako: The UFC needs to bring in someone who will actually fight, like Gegard Mousasi Storm: god forbid that he wants to come in at 100%. even IF he is doing this to take more time off, what does it matter? he has already reached his quota for a champion. which is a max of 2 fights per year. JujitsWho: Seemed fine for the Griffin fight. I didn't hear anything about him hurting it in that fight. Yet, amazingly he has to has surgery now....Just saying Storm: u guys act so ungrateful for what he HAS given u. Storm: u guys act so ungrateful for what he HAS given u. he has fought every time the UFC wanted him to, and every opponent they have put in front of him. this is no different. he is taking time to heal and said that even though he doesnt think that Belfort deserves the shot, he will still defend the title against him in 2010. Storm: yep u are all correct. Silva is scared and chicken shit. thats why he did this. he is going to ride it out so he can be champ for almost 4 years, then before he fights Belfort, he will vacate the title and retire. he is so scared. the dude doesnt give a shit about his fans either. taking care of his arm... pffft, dude is a joke. he should be like... "i am here to entertain and will fight at not 100% to make people happy". thats all i know. MMAFuel420: He DEFINATLY waited to long for this minor surgery....... delaying his fans and UFC fans the fight they want to see. Anderson is a premadona ...... but when your that good..... you can be.... i sense a little AA in storm..... easy killer.... machida and anderson is not life..... MMAFuel420: AA.... devoted machida and silva tool....... normally found on the UFC forums. JujitsWho: bump for cee Little_Kang: I think Anderson wants to try the whole hold two titles at the same time. But he can't fight Machida because god knows you can't fight friends....... so he'll try it at heavyweight and thus run from defending his 185 title Ceelarence: heres the deal. No one here is saying that Anderson is scared, or not fighting due to fear or losing his belt or any of that. So you call just cool it with that nonsense. As far as Anderson ducking the fight. How is he not? From the info that I have read in the thread alone, from Storm, D_V, and JJW. He has known for quite some time about these spurs on his elbow. He has been complaining about the spurs since late August, which was after he fought Forrest, the talk of Silva/Mir was sometime in mid-late September. No complaint of spurs, no hints that he was going to pull out the fight or possibly have to have surgery or anything. If there were any inclination of him having surgery, Im pretty sure HE WOULDNT HAVE TAKEN THE FIGHT. then they cancel that fight, tell him hes fighting Vitor. The decides to have the surgery. Once again, I AM NOT saying that he is scared or nervous or any of that. I would understand if he said that Vitor is a very tough opponent and I need time to heal to be 100%. But he didnt, he said Vitor would be an easy fight, correct? Which in my mind, states that he is ducking. Maybe he was forced to have the surgery, or it was a personal decision. Idk that much, all I know is that he opened his mouth, its getting close, maybe he just doesnt want to fight and needs some more time off. Whatever, doesnt mattter to me. But to say that you will fight someone, beat him handily, and 2 months before the fight, when youre training camp should be starting. You pull out. Doesnt make sense to me. At all
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