Anderson Silva Doesn’t Want To Fight Vitor Belfort Again

Former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva said he has no intention of fighting fellow Brazilian Vitor Belfort again.

Belfort is hoping for a match against the winner of the rematch between Silva and new champion Chris Weidman at the end of the year. But Silva is reluctant to fight his former Black House teammate a second time.

The two first fought in February 2011 at UFC 126. In the first round, Silva landed a front kick to Belfort’s jaw, and followed up with punches. Referee Mario Yamasaki stopped the fight at 3:25, handing Belfort his first KO loss in 28 fights.

“I don’t think so,” Silva said of the possibility of fighting Belfort again. “What was supposed to be done was done. Of course, we are employees of the UFC, but I don’t like to fight against Brazilians. I don’t see that possibility.”

Silva has only fought two other Brazilians during his seven year UFC career — Thales Leites at UFC 97 in April 2009 and Demian Maia at UFC 112 in April 2010.

At UFC 162 on July 9, Silva lost his middleweight championship to Weidman after being knocked out at 1:18 in the second round. The 38-year-old said that his loss was hard for his countrymen, and that he wanted to bring the belt back to Brazil. To do that, he’ll have to defeat Weidman when the two face off again at UFC 168 on December 28.

After the loss, Silva dropped to the number two middleweight in the world and was pulled out of the pound-for-pound rankings. But the Spider never considered himself to be number one.

“I’m a regular guy. I’m not and never wanted to be the best (fighter) in the world. People said that about me. I thank them for believing that I’m the best, but I never thought I was the best pound-for-pound (fighter),” he said.

Anderson Silva also said that he plans to honor the 10-fight contract he signed in December 2012.

“We evaluated and prepared a schedule so I can do all those 10 fights,” he said. “I hope I can do all, and preferably with wins.”

What do you think of Anderson Silva’s reluctance to fight Vitor Belfort?

[Photo credit: Tiago Hammil/Flickr]