Wanderlei Silva has reportedly declined a bout against Brandon Vera for the impromptu July 19th UFC card.

Reports circulating yesterday indicated that Zuffa began approaching both Silva and UFC heavyweight Brandon Vera to headline a potential card in Las Vegas on July 19th. The event was scheduled to be broadcast on SpikeTV.

Silva’s reason for turning down the fight was a lack of time to properly prepare for the bout.

The move by the UFC to put together a card in five weeks’ time is heavily believed to stem from Affliction’s debut event which will be on pay-per-view on the same night.

This wouldn’t be the first time that Zuffa has gone head-to-head with rival MMA promoters. During the May 30th CBS debut of EliteXC’s Saturday Night Fights, SpikeTV aired the television premiere of the Chuck Liddell – Wanderlei Silva fight from UFC 79 in December 2007. That broadcast did a respectable 1.2 Nielsen rating, considering the 6.5 million viewers who tuned in to the network television debut of mixed martial arts.

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