Many fans were left disappointed when it was announced at the weekend that Vitor Belfort had pulled out of his headline fight with Wanderlei Silva at UFC 147 next month due to a broken hand, but apparently nobody took it quite as badly as ‘The Axe-Murderer’.
Silva pulled no punches as he unleashed a verbal tirade at his rival on Twitter yesterday which was later translated by Brazilian site TATAME.
“We are professionals,” Silva wrote. “It’s a great irresponsibility not to be careful on training, a great disrespect towards the fans. I’m really sad. I’m ready to knock you out, you have nowhere to run. This fight is happening. I guess you got scared of me. Nobody trains so hard that breaks his hand. We use the best equipments, gloves, bandages.
“If you were scared, you shouldn’t have accepted it. If you really got it broken, it’s amateurism and if you didn’t, you’re scared. In both scenarios, it was irresponsible of you towards the fans. Pardon the word, but I’m pissed with your amateurism. A main event on the biggest event of the world and the guy shows up like that”.
Silva has been calling for a fight with Belfort for years as he looks to avenge an old loss to ‘The Phenom’ at UFC: Brazil back in 1998 which is perhaps part of the reason why he’s so frustrated that the bout won’t be going ahead as planned.
Silva and Belfort have also just come off a stint as opposing coaches on The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil which has helped further heighten their rivalry.
No doubt the fight will still take place down the line, but in the mean-time the UFC are busy trying to figure out who they can bring in to replace Belfort against Silva. The card has already suffered from a major blow when Anderson Silva Vs Chael Sonnen II was moved to UFC 148, and with the card now looking very weak for a pay-per-view quality show they’ll have to come up with a big name opponent to appease the fans.
