Vitor Belfort Not Likely to Receive Another Shot at Anderson Silva for the Title

UFC middleweight Vitor Belfort is gunning for a title shot, but it seems like his waiting game will continue so long as Anderson Silva is sitting on the throne as champion.

Belfort has looked ultra impressive lately with back-to-back head-kick knockout victories over former Strikeforce champion Luke Rockhold and perennial UFC contender Michael Bisping.

The wins have put Belfort back near the top of the middleweight division rankings, and he said recently on Twitter how he was hoping to score the winner of the UFC 162 main event between Silva and Chris Weidman.

The only problem is if Silva is victorious on Saturday night, convincing him to face Belfort for a second time won't be an easy task for White or the UFC if they even tried to make the fight happen.

Silva already bested Belfort at UFC 126 in 2011 with one of the most memorable knockouts in MMA history.

Because of that moment and Silva's time in the sport dwindling as he approaches 40 years of age before too long, it's going to be a hard sell for White to put the rematch together.

"The hard position that Vitor's in when you talk about a rematch with him, it's like (Anderson) went out and kicked him in the face in the first 60 seconds in one of the most devastating knockouts of all time," White explained when speaking to the media on Thursday. "So when you go back to Anderson Silva, who's in the twilight of his career, and you say to a guy like Anderson 'hey what about Vitor?' 'I annihilated Vitor, I made it look like Vitor wasn't even a fighter, we shouldn't have been fighting or whatever, I've got other fights, I want to fight other people and you talk about his legacy.' Those are tough fights to make."

Belfort's saving grace wouldn't even be a Weidman victory, because White has already stated that if Silva loses his belt at UFC 162, he will be granted an immediate rematch for the title.

White wouldn't completely shut the door on Belfort getting a rematch against Silva, but the opening to make it a reality seems awfully slim, at least right now.

"I'm not saying that Vitor couldn't get the next shot, or couldn't get a shot soon, but if you're Anderson Silva you're looking for another challenge," White said.  "It would be a hard argument. 

"You could make a better argument that Dan Henderson should get the next shot. Yeah, he hasn't looked impressively and he hasn't won, but (Anderson) didn't beat him as bad as he did Vitor."

Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted