Soares: Silva's ribs 'still not 100 percent'

Ed Soares, the manager to many, including UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, told MMAWeekly.com that Silva's rib injury could move the proposed middleweight title fight between Silva and Vitor Belfort from a potential New Year's Day spot to a month later on the UFC's Super Bowl weekend show in early February.

"His rib is still very tender, still very sore. It's still a little bit sore, but it's healing up. It's still not 100-percent," said Soares.

"He needs to be training at least 10 weeks with his ribs not being hurt. They're still tender, it really hurts to throw his knees and stuff like that."

This fight needs to happen when Silva can be fully healthy for the sake of having the best fight for those purchasing the show on pay-per-view. If Silva is rushed back (which I would doubt he'd let happen) and is not at his best, it is doing a huge disservice to everybody involved in the process.