Date February 5, 2011 Attendance 10,893 Buyrate 725,000 | City Las Vegas, Nevada Total gate $3,600,000 | |
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Venue Mandalay Bay Events Center Promotion Ultimate Fighting Championship Cast Anderson Silva, Vitor Belfort, Jon Jones, Ryan Bader, Forrest Griffin Similar UFC 115, UFC 106, UFC 105: Couture v, UFC 73, UFC 55 | ||
UFC 126: Silva vs. Belfort was a mixed martial arts pay-per-view event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on February 5, 2011 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Ufc 126 silva vs belfort extended preview
Background
Former Light Heavyweight Champion Vitor Belfort was scheduled to fight Yushin Okami at UFC 122. However, UFC President Dana White said that Belfort would instead challenge Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva for the belt. Belfort was originally scheduled to compete against Silva on January 2, 2010 at UFC 108, but due to an injury sustained by Silva, the fight had to be postponed until February 6, 2010 at UFC 109 and April 10, 2010 at UFC 112, respectively. However, both fights were cancelled.
A bout between Kenny Florian and Evan Dunham was expected for this event. The fight was moved to UFC: Fight For The Troops 2.
A bout between Jon Fitch and Jake Ellenberger was expected for this event. However Fitch was pulled from the bout and instead fought former two-division champion B.J. Penn at UFC 127. Ellenberger remained on the card and instead fought Carlos Eduardo Rocha.
Sam Stout was originally scheduled to face Paul Kelly at this event, but dropped off of the card due to injury. Donald Cerrone stepped in to replace him, in what would become the first UFC lightweight fight featuring a fighter imported from the World Extreme Cagefighting following their merger in December 2010.
UFC 126 featured two preliminary fights live on Spike TV, and one preliminary fight on their Facebook stream.
This event also featured the promotional debuts of the future UFC Flyweight Champion Demetrious Johnson and MMA legend Norifumi Yamamoto
Bonus awards
Fighters were awarded $75,000 bonuses.
Reported payout
The following is the reported payout to the fighters as reported to the Nevada State Athletic Commission. The numbers only include figures that UFC disclosed to the athletic commission; fight bonuses, sponsorship fees, and other unofficial bonuses were not disclosed.