Belfort out, “Cyborg” in against Manhoef

LONDON, Jan. 30 — Vitor Belfort (Pictures) has cited "personal reasons" as an explanation for his decision to pull out of the Cage Rage 15 main event.

The Brazilian was set to fight Dutch destroyer Melvin Manhoef (Pictures) for the Cage Rage light heavyweight title this Saturday, February 4, at London's Wembley Conference Centre.

Manhoef will now face Chute Boxe brawler Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos (Pictures) instead in what promises to be an extremely explosive main event. Meanwhile, Fabio Piamonte (Pictures) has been drafted in to fight his Chute Boxe teammate's original opponent, UFC veteran Jason Delucia.

In other news:

- Cage Rage has now confirmed that David "Tank" Abbott will be in attendance on Saturday. Interestingly, Abbott has been challenged by the UK-based fighter Amokrane Sabat and a fight between these two has been promised by Cage Rage for some point in the future.

- The long anticipated match-up between Anderson Silva (Pictures) and Matt Lindland (Pictures) for the Cage Rage world middleweight title has been confirmed for Cage Rage 16.

- The partnership between PRIDE and Cage Rage seems alive and kicking, and a fight between PRIDE veteran Alexandru Lungu (Pictures) and Cage Rage heavyweight star Robert Berry (Pictures) seems in the offing.

- Due to the fact that the last two Cage Rage shows have sold-out well in advance, the UK promotion will be changing venues from July 2006. The new venue will be the much bigger and much more prestigious Wembley Arena, which has a maximum capacity of just under 13,000. It is unlikely that Cage Rage will be using the venue's entire capacity in the first instance, but the thought of seeing MMA in such a historic venue is tantalizing.

- At the time of press, the current card for Cage Rage 15, is as follows:

Evangelista Santos (Pictures) vs. Melvin Manhoef (Pictures)
Curtis Stout (Pictures) vs. Daijiro Matsui (Pictures)
Chris Lytle (Pictures) vs. Ross Mason (Pictures)
Dave Legeno vs. Ikuhisa Minowa (Pictures)
Jean Silva (Pictures) vs. Paul Daley (Pictures)
Travis Lutter (Pictures) vs. Jose Landi-Jons
Fabio Piamonte (Pictures) vs. Jason Delucia
Tengiz Tedoradze vs. Robert Berry (Pictures)
Brad Pickett (Pictures) vs. Robbie Oliver (Pictures)
Mark Epstein (Pictures) vs. Darren Little (Pictures)
Sol Gilbert (Pictures) vs. Sami Berik (Pictures)
Brian Adams vs. Ryan Robinson (Pictures)
Zelg Galesticvs. Michael Holmes
Jason Barrett (Pictures) vs. Mindaugas Arbocius