Vitor Belfort vs. Wanderlei Silva Going Down at UFC 147

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Updated:: Mar 1, 2018
Original:: May 7, 2012

UFC 147 will now officially be headlined by the middleweight rematch between The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil coaches Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva.

MMAJunkie reports that UFC president Dana White confirmed the fight for the main event at last week's media gathering at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

Originally, the event was to host the long-awaited rematch between UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva and his chief rival Chael Sonnen. The event was to be held in a soccer stadium and would have been a blockbuster. Logistics issues posed by a U.N. conference prevented the fight from taking place in Brazil though, and that bout was shuffled ahead to the UFC 148 fight card in July.

Both Brazilian mixed martial arts legends, Silva and Belfort will be meeting in a rematch of their 1998 UFC Brazil fight, which saw The Phenom blitz The Axe Murderer for a quick first round knockout. Currently serving as coaches on the first season of TUF: Brazil, Silva and Belfort will do battle upon the show's conclusion.

Both men are coming off of wins, with Silva having recently rebounded from a knockout loss to Chris Leben with a TKO over Cung Le and Belfort enjoying a two-fight winning streak (having beaten Yoshihiro Akiyama and Anthony Johnson) since suffering his infamous knockout to Anderson Silva.