Vitor Belfort And Alan Belcher Agree To Fight At UFC 153 In October

(Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

After several days of lobbying by Alan Belcher, it appears “The Talent” will get his wish to fight Vitor Belfort at UFC 153 as “The Phenom” has agreed to fight Belcher at the Oct. 13 event in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Belcher recently stated on his Twitter that the match up was in the works and he was simply waiting for Belfort to agree to the fight. The Brazilian agreed to fight Belfort Tuesday night when he tweeted ”#belcher lets make this fight #ufcrio in oct 13″.

While two fighters agreeing to fight doesn’t make it official, MMAJunkie.com is also reporting that sources close both fighters are confirming the 185-pound clash will indeed take place.

The bout between the two middleweight contenders will take place on the main card of the event, which is headlined by a featherweight championship contest between Jose “Scarface” Aldo and Erik “New Breed” Koch.

Belfort (21-9) will fight in the UFC for the 16th time in his storied career at UFC 153. The Brazilian has fought the best fighters in the world all over the globe in his career and will be fighting in his home country for the second consecutive time. The former UFC light heavyweight champion last fought at UFC 142 last January, submitting Anthony Johnson in the first round. Belfort is one of the most exciting fighters in the world; he has crippling knockout power in his hands that can put any man to sleep with one shot and black belt level jiu-jitsu skills to back it up. Belfort is ecstatic to be fighting in front of his hometown crowd once again and will surely bring his best to the octagon at UFC 153.

Belcher (18-6) has been hampered by injuries in recent years, which up until his last fight, a first round TKO of Rousimar Palhares at UFC on FOX 3, prevented him from building any real ground in the UFC middleweight division. “The Talent” has only competed three times since the beginning of 2010 but is now completely healthy and is looking to make a title run at 185-pounds. The 28-year-old has won six of his last seven bouts with the lone loss coming via controversial split decision against Yoshihiro Akiyama all the way at UFC 100 in July of 2009.

Prior to Belfort agreeing to fight Belcher, he had been campaigning for a fight against fellow top contender Chris Weidman. Now that it is known that bout will not be taking place at UFC 153, the door looks wide open for Weidman as the next man to challenge UFC middleweight champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva.

UFC 153 is expected to take place at HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Oct. 13. Along with the Aldo vs. Koch headliner, a light heavyweight contest between Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Glover Teixeira has been confirmed for the event.

To get the latest on UFC 153, click here. For up-to-date versions of all upcoming fight cards, head over to the rumors section.

Mike Bohn, founder and lead writer of FightCove.com, wrote this article. You can follow Mike on Twitter at @FightCoveMike. Also, follow @FightCove on Twitter and “Like” Fight Cove on Facebook.