Belfort-Mousasi not sealed after all

A mere 24 hours after Gegard Mousasi said, "Yes, those (rumors) are true and I will be fighting Vitor Belfort (at Affliction 3)," on the M-1 Global website, it appears that his confidence doesn't hold true with his potential opponent.

"I don't know about any of it, nothing has been decided. Nothing has reached me yet, but I'll be on standby and see what happens," Belfort told Carlos Ozorio in a report on GracieMag.com about a proposed Aug. 1 date at Affliction 3.

While each fighter has readily admitted a desire to face the other, a potential snag in negotiations could be the weight at which the fight would be contested. Belfort has recently been competing in the middleweight division, but Mousasi recently vacated his Dream middleweight championship because he could no longer make the weight cut.

"I cannot make the weight, otherwise I would have continued to fight at 185 and not given up my Dream middleweight title," Mousasi said on M-1Global.com on Wednesday. "I cannot make 185 anymore and that is final."

Belfort, however, doesn't appear to want to go back up in weight to make the fight happen. "Who defines this isn't him. I fight at 185 pounds. If they want to do this fight at 185 ponds, it's done; otherwise, I see no option to go up, even because he isn't a challenge, a man with much name," Belfort told GuilhermeCruz on Tatame.com. "To go up, I don't see him as a challenge. I want to fight with him in the weight he was champion (at Dream), then I think its worth (it)."

Of course, both sides could be publicly posturing to get what they want in negotiations. But, for now at least, it appears the bout is not as firm as Mousasi first thought.