Vitor Belfort Out of Action for Four Months

MMA Fighting reports that Vitor Belfort has successfully undergone shoulder surgery and will be out four months.

The shoulder injury took a lot of people by surprise but Vitor told Sherdog that this has been a lingering issue:

“I’ve already had the surgery on my left shoulder,” Belfort said. “Actually Lorenzo (Fertitta) was aware that I was feeling really bad pain in my shoulder for a long time. I’ve already had three injections since I was scheduled to fight Fedor, but lately the pain got really unbearable and my doctor decided to take an (MRI) and it showed chronic injury that was getting worse. My doctor, Michel Simoni, said that if I did not stop and do the surgery immediately, I was running serious risk of my shoulder going out of place. Also I was already losing the power of my left arm. How could I fight (without) my strongest hand?”

Belfort expects to fight before the end of 2010.

As of this moment, Anderson Silva is expected to remain on the UFC 112 card though the UFC hasn't announced a new opponent. Chael Sonnen's victory at UFC 109 put him next in line to fight the winner of Silva-Belfort but it remains to be seen if Sonnen will be available by April. If Sonnen can't fight Silva in Abu Dhabi we could see both Chael and Vitor ready to fight at the same time; possibly making an interesting dilemma for the UFC down the road.