Wanderlei Silva’s coach on Vitor Belfort’s “dubious” pullout, Silva sounds off on Belfort too
Wanderlei Silva’s coach, Andre Dida, doubts the legitimacy of Vitor Belfort‘s pullout of their planned boxing bout. Vitor Belfort withdrew from the contest after reporting a pair of concussions, but Dida seems unsure about the reported training mishap that scrapped the Belfort-Silva booking for September 27th in Sao Paulo.
While Acelino Freitas replaced ‘The Phenom’ and the former boxing champ helped maintain Silva’s fight booking for Spaten Fight Night 2, Dida still expressed some discontentment with Vitor Belfort. This was verbalized at a Sunday open workout session in Rio de Janeiro which was documented by MMA Fighting. During that interaction, Dida said [via MMA Fighting],
“If you take any fighter 20 days before competition and have him undergo a bunch of exams, you’ll notice he’s sparring, something will show up — a shoulder inflammation, small injuries to the hand, there’s always something. It’s hard for a fighter to fight at his 100 percent. In my opinion, Vitor had to present a medical report, more exams. Not just [say], ‘the doctor said this and that.’ It’s too behind the curtain, right?”
“I work with high-level UFC fighters and when something happens you have to send all the exams to the promotion. And show it to the fans. ‘Look, here’s the injury.’ Post it on Instagram. Make people feel your pain. Vitor hasn’t made anyone feel his pain so it’s all too dubious. I think Vitor should come out and clarify things for his fans because I don’t believe what was posted. I think he really chickened out, he quit. And it’s not a good look for him. .. I think Vitor didn’t want it as bad as Wanderlei.”
Wanderlei Silva fires shots at Vitor Belfort as well
Wanderlei Silva has been chomping at the bit for a rematch with Vitor Belfort since the latter finished the former in less than a minute with strikes in the UFC cage in the late-90’s. Rematch plans had been scrapped between the two even prior to this most recent instance, and it clearly boils the blood of ‘The Axe Murderer’ as he is again facing a scrapped Belfort booking.
As he sent some verbal volleys towards his long-time rival ahead of SFN 2 at a press event over the weekend, Wanderlei Silva stated [via MMA Fighting],
“He needs to do what he’s always talking about. He’s always talking about strength, perseverance, optimism, and then does that. That shows how important is the mental part for the athlete. An athlete needs to be confident, to believe in himself. He must know what he can do.”
“He should stand in front of the mirror and say, ‘I’m a lion! I’m a lion!’ Anything, right? Hire a psychologist, do therapy, right? But this fight is scheduled for next year. Like I said I would be here on the 27, I’m here. I’ll be here next time, too. And that time, I hope he doesn’t run.”
