Gegard Mousasi vs. Vitor Belfort at Affliction 3

Moved to front page by Brent Brookhouse.  Big news here.

Fresh off a successful submission victory over Mark Hunt last night in the opening round of Dream's "Super Hulk" tournament, the ultra-talented Gegard Mousasi (24-2-1) spoke to M1-Global, and confirmed that he would next compete for Affliction at their August 1st show against Vitor Belfort:

While Mousasi awaits word on his next opponent in the "Super Hulk" tournament, he will remain active this summer as he prepares for his first-ever bout in the United States. When asked to address rumors that he will be fighting former UFC light heavyweight champion Vitor Belfort for Affliction on Aug. 1, a candid Mousasi confirmed the rumors as being true.

"Yes, those (rumors) are true and I will be fighting Vitor Belfort," exclaimed an excited Mousasi.

The report goes on to mention that it is not yet clear whether the bout will be contested at middleweight or light heavyweight, since Belfort has fought in both weight classes, and Mousasi, despite having competed nearly exclusively at middleweight so far, has made it clear that he wants to move up in weight, even to heavyweight if possible. 

Belfort (18-8) is well known for his outstanding hands, and seems to have re-found his knockout power recently, after a few years of uninspired performances.  Competing on Affliction's first two cards, the Brazilian scored brutal knockouts of Terry Martin and Matt Lindland in succession.  Belfort does have a black-belt in BJJ, but he has rarely opted to use his ground skills.

Mousasi brings to the table an extremely well-rounded palette of skills, and it will be interesting to see how Belfort plans to deal with the "Young Vagabond".  Mousasi has come face-to-face with even heavier-handed sluggers than Belfort (Melvin Manhoef, Mark Hunt) and taken them down for submission victories, while also showing excellent striking to deal with grappling specialists.

UPDATE:  In a follow-up interview with M-1 Global, Mousasi responds to Belfort's comments about his star-power, and says that he refuses to fight at 185:

"I cannot make the weight, otherwise I would have continued to fight at 185 and not given up my DREAM middleweight title," Mousasi responded. "I cannot make 185 anymore and that is final."

"If (Belfort) does not want to fight at middleweight, why not fight me at a catchweight?"

Mousasi was also asked if he felt offended by Belfort's statement in which he is quoted as saying "I see no option to go up, even because he isn’t a challenge, a man with much name. To go up, I don’t see him as a challenge."

"To be honest, I don’t really care," answered Mousasi, before adding, "But for me, his comments are strange because his paycheck will be unchanged whether he fights a bigger name than me or not. It is also strange that he does not see me as a challenge when many rankings have me ranked higher than him at middleweight."