Shoulder injury forces Vitor Belfort out of UFC 112 title fight with Anderson Silva

UFC 112's fight card isn't as "Invincible" as its event name may suggest.

Vitor Belfort (19-8 MMA, 8-4 UFC) has been forced to withdraw from a scheduled main-event title fight with middleweight champion Anderson Silva (25-4 MMA, 10-0 UFC) at the April 10 event, which takes place at Concert Arena at the Ferrari World theme park on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

The Brazil-based Web site Tatame first reported the news, which was subsequently confirmed by Yahoo! Sports' Kevin Iole.

The Tatame report stated Belfort hurt his shoulder in training and will not be able to recover in time for the fight. Jayme Sandall, Belfort's trainer, stated that Belfort had been unable to use his injured arm in practice.

Iole subsequently confirmed the injury with UFC president Dana White via his Twitter account.

Sources told MMAjunkie.com that Belfort was scheduled to train in the U.S. beginning next week as part of a video shoot for Spike TV's "Countdown to UFC 112" preview show.

The former UFC light heavyweight champion and UFC heavyweight tournament champion made a forceful announcement of his octagon return this past September when he stopped former middleweight champ Rich Franklin in the main event of UFC 103. Belfort served a four-year stint outside the promotion after back-to-back losses against Randy Couture and Tito Ortiz at UFC 49 and UFC 51, respectively.

While many in the MMA industry — including Silva, his former training partner — were up in arms about Belfort's quickstep to title contention, the Brazilian said he is just doing his job.

Meanwhile, sources from Silva's camp told MMAjunkie.com that as of Thursday afternoon they had heard no official word on Belfort's withdrawal and are waiting for confirmation from UFC officials.

Silva, a six-time UFC champion, told Tatame he isn't aware of any change in the card and is training as if the fight is still on.

Source: http://mmajunkie.com/news/17916/shoulde ... -silva.mma


Personal note: Is Sonnen going to get the titleshot against A. Silva? What do you think?