The UFC offered veteran Vitor Belfort the opportuntiy to avenge his loss to Anderson Silva for Silva’s return fight after being suspended for testing positive for banned substances. Michael Bisping had gone on record to say that Belfort was offered the fight first, but said Belfort turned it down.

It appears that was the case, as UFC senior vice president Giovani Decker spoke with Combate about trying to put together upcoming fight cards (transcribed by MMA Fighting):

“With the card losing a title fight (Werdum vs. Velasquez) as big as that one, we thought this card would fit better at the Arena, no longer at a soccer stadium,” Decker told Combate. “But we couldn’t get the deal done with Vitor Belfort. Anderson accepted the fight, but Vitor decided to wait to see what would happen in the fight between Chris Weidman and Luke Rockhold (at UFC 194), and he was right, because Rockhold won and called him out at the UFC 194 post-fight press conference, which was a good sign for him.”

“Many people said Vitor didn’t want this fight, and that wasn’t the truth,” he continued. “He wants it, he made it clear it will happen at some time, but for him, thinking about his career and what he has ahead of him at this moment, this fight wouldn’t make sense. We were running out of time, and the UFC needed to announce the UFC 196 main event in Las Vegas. That’s why the fight between Werdum and Velasquez ended up there.”

Will we see a rematch between Belfort and Silva sometime soon? Let us know in the comments who you would pick to win in a rematch!