Vitor Belfort Announces He’s Facing Cung Le on UFC 139 Fight Card in San Jose

Cung Le

Vitor Belfort wants to keep busy and former Strikeforce middleweight champion Cung Le wants to fight in the UFC. Wish granted on both accounts.

In a bout now secured for UFC 139 in San Jose, Calif., Vitor Belfort will meet Cung Le in a middleweight fight on the card.

Belfort announced the fight via his website and also made the announcement via his Twitter account late Saturday night.

Cung Le on Saturday morning added his own confirmation of the fight via Twitter. “San Jose here we go UFC 139! I am honored to be part of the UFC and would like to thank Dana White & Lorenzo Fertitta for this opportunity.”

Following a disappointing loss to Anderson Silva for the middleweight gold, former UFC champion Vitor Belfort came back in blistering fashion at UFC 133, where he put away Yoshihiro Akiyama in less than two minutes.

Now the Brazilian phenom will step into the cage at UFC 139 to face a local legend who gets to live his dream.

Former Strikeforce middleweight champion Cung Le has been a busy guy over the last year, but none of that had to do with his fight career. Le has become very active with acting roles in Hollywood, and hasn’t fought since June 2010, but had the hunger to come back to the sport, if the right conditions existed.

“I know for a fact that if I do fight again, it’s going to be in the UFC. I’ve never fought in the UFC, but I would love to fight in the UFC,” Le told MMAWeekly.com when appearing at the San Diego Comic Con in July.

Now it appears Le is getting his wish to fight in the UFC, and he’ll do so in front of his adopted hometown crowd in San Jose.

Le becomes the latest fighter defection from Strikeforce after being purchased by Zuffa earlier this year. Former welterweight champion Nick Diaz as well as former heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem are now both out of Strikeforce and in the UFC. Current Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Dan Henderson is also deep in talks to rejoin the UFC, which would make three champions plus one former champion out of Strikeforce and on the UFC roster.

While the UFC has yet to officially announce UFC 139, the card is expected to take place on Nov. 19 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose. Belfort vs. Le is almost guaranteed a main card slot, and it may even garner co-main event status when all is said and done.

(UPDATED on Sept. 10, 2011 to include Cung Le’s confirmation of the fight.)

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