Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva will no longer be running things back in a boxing contest after the former had to withdraw from the bout. The two combatants were supposed to headline the sophomore Spaten Fight Night event. The first Spaten Fight Night card was headlined by a boxing bout between former UFC rivals Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen.
Alas, Belfort will not be competing September 27th in Sao Paulo, Brazil with reports from Brazilian outlet Globo indicating as such with 'The Phenom' himself also coming out to touch on pulling out of this sequel clash with 'The Axe Murderer.' The former UFC light heavyweight champion posted a video to his Instagram page with Belfort saying that he suffered what was described by medical professionals as a grade 3 concussion when he was training for this Queensberry Rules showdown.
While Belfort is no longer competing towards the end of the month, Silva will still be donning the big gloves for this event. The promotion is reportedly set to announce a replacement opponent for the former Pride FC champion during one of the most popular programs in South America, Fantastico, with the new opponent for Silva set to be announced on their Sunday broadcast.
Vitor Belfort vs. Wanderlei Silva and their history together
Vitor Belfort vs. Wanderlei Silva first fought almost thirty years ago during the UFC's first ever card in Brazil. This took place at UFC 17.5 in 1998 with Belfort storming through Silva 44 seconds into the contest with that barrage of strikes that crumbled the Brazilian berserker finding itself on seemingly innumerable UFC highlight reel packages thereafter.
There have been attempts to re-book this fight in the 27 years since their initial meeting took place with Belfort also withdrawing from that booking attempt. That transpired at UFC 147 when Vitor Belfort was forced into pulling out from the June 2012 rematch after suffering a broken hand. Rich Franklin would step up to fill that vacancy and ended up besting Silva on points.
Silva makes his boxing debut here in the coming weeks and while Vitor Belfort vs. Wanderlei Silva fell out, we will see the story unfurl this weekend when Silva's replacement opponent for SFN 2 comes to light.
