A UFC middleweight title fight between champion Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort is not yet signed and won't be happening at UFC 125 on Jan. 1. But according to Silva's manager, Ed Soares, the bout will take place in 2011. "No confirmed date; it's not signed yet," Soares told Ariel Helwani on Monday's edition of "The MMA Hour." "It'll happen in the early portion of 2011, but it's not going to happen Jan. 1 just because he wants to make sure he's 100 percent. He feels good – he's probably 80-85 percent."
Soares said the UFC middleweight champ's ribs continue to bother him, saying they were hurt going into his UFC 117 title defense against Chael Sonnen during a training session with Olympic gold medal-winning judoka Satoshi Ishii. Soares said in the days leading up to the fight, doctors even urged Silva to pull out of the bout.
Soares said Silva injured his ribs about a week before the fight, and a night later had trouble breathing.
"The doctor at the hospital – I'm not going to say they tried to convince him, they were just saying, 'Hey, we don't recommend you fight,' " Soares said. But even after telling UFC president Dana White of the injury, Soares said Silva's attitude was, "it is what it is – the fight's on ... he's got to go in there and try to do it."
Soares said Silva didn't go through workouts the week of the fight – except for one: the open media workouts three days before the fight.
"If there's going to be one training session to (go strong) at, it's going to be the media workouts so everyone thinks he's fine," Soares said. "... Everyone else is going to see, and everyone is going to think it's business as usual. But that's not the case. We kept it under wraps. This is serious. That was one of the most difficult weeks of my life as a manager."
Silva went on to submit Sonnen 3:10 into the fifth round with a triangle choke-armbar combination for one of the greatest comebacks in MMA history. Sonnen dominated the fight for four and a half rounds before following Silva to the ground and getting caught. A rematch was expected to take place, but last month, the California State Athletic Commission revealed Sonnen had tested positive for elevated testosterone levels, suggesting use of a performance enhancing drug. Sonnen has appealed his suspension.
Soares said Sonnen's positive PED test doesn't give the Silva camp any satisfaction.
"Nothing I could say is going to affect him more than what's already affected him," Soares said. "He can say what he wants, but come on – he lost the fight. Nothing more needs to be said. I do feel bad for him. The guy's a human being. He's not going to be able to make a living from fighting for a year, it looks like. There was a lot of money left on the table – it was a big fight. The UFC lost, he lost, we lost, everybody lost in this. It tarnished his performance that night. A lot of negative things came from that. That's like kicking someone while they're down, and I choose not to do that."
But in the meantime, Soares said a documentary about Silva has finished shooting and is in the editing stages. He expects it could be released in early 2011 – and said there is even hope to get it submitted to the Sundance Film Festival.
"We got together with these guys that did some really big documentaries, and we clicked really well," Soares said. "We made the decision right before the Abu Dhabi fight (at UFC 112) to start doing a documentary. We didn't know what was going to happen, but we were going to start shooting it from right after the Demian Maia fight right up to his next fight (against Sonnen at UFC 117). It just ended up being one of the craziest five months of all of our careers."
Soares said the documentary will be slice of Silva's life over the time between UFC 112 and 117 and that the film crew was a constant over that period – "at least five days a week," he said. Soares said he has high hopes for the film.
"As of right now, our main goal is to try and get it into the film festivals," Soares said. "And if it turns out the way I think it could, I would love to see this have a theatrical release. I think it would be good for MMA. It really humanizes and shows a different side of these guys that people have never seen before."
Watch Monday's episode of The MMA Hour below.
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