So, Wanderlei Silva will fight Rich Franklin on June 23 at UFC 147 at Jornalista Felipe Drumond Stadium in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, as "Ace" will step in for Vitor Belfort, who was due to face Silva before a broken hand during training forced him to withdraw from the fight.
However, the reaction to "The Phenom" pulling out of the fight all but ensured that Belfort and "the Axe Murderer" - who have been matching wits as coaches on The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil - will find their way to the Octagon against each other at some point in the not-too-distant future.
Of course, that doesn't tend to be the case lately when a planned meeting between TUF coaches is scrapped. TUF 6 coaches Matt Hughes and Matt Serra did eventually meet in the Octagon once Serra had recovered from a herniated disc, and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson did make it to Las Vegas for a fight with TUF 10 rival Rashad Evans after taking time off to film The A-Team, but the last two TUF coach fights to be derailed by injury wound up never taking place.
When Tito Ortiz was forced to bow out of his UFC 115 fight with Chuck Liddell, Rich Franklin wound up taking Ortiz's place on TUF 11 and retiring "The Iceman" at UFC 115 before Ortiz could return from neck surgery. Brock Lesnar was due to fight Junior dos Santos after coaching against him on TUF 13 last year, but a flare-up of Lesnar's diverticulitis forced him out of that bout, and a loss to Alistair Overeem at UFC 141 in December wound up being the last fight of Lesnar's MMA career before he returned to WWE.
This, however, is different. There is very clearly bad blood between "The Axe Murderer" and "The Phenom," who first fought 14 years ago at UFC Brazil, with Belfort scoring a 44-second knockout victory. Upon learning that Belfort had been forced to withdraw from the fight, Silva took to Twitter, launching a lengthy diatribe against his rival on Twitter where he accused Belfort of being scared and/or amateurish. Belfort's wife, meanwhile, responded from her own Twitter account (@Joanapardob), saying "Wanderlei only knows how to speak," among other comments. Clearly, there is an unresolved issue between Silva and Belfort, and chances are that they'll have an opportunity to resolve it sooner rather than later.
Silva and Belfort are at similar points in their careers, where they remain capable of putting on compelling fights, but are no longer relevant to the title picture in their weight class. With the UFC continuing to expand its presence in Brazil, a matchup of two of the country's best known fighters should remain on the table going forward, so as long as Silva remains active in the UFC, chances are he'll get his chance to avenge his loss to Belfort.
For now, though, he has a different loss to avenge.
