Vitor Belfort

There's one nagging obstacle remaining, but it wasn't large enough to stop Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White from confirming that he is ready to make the dream fight of mixed martial arts: middleweight champion Anderson Silva versus welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre this year at a stadium in North America. St-Pierre (21-2) still has an April 30 title defense against Jake Shields (26-4-1), but Silva's schedule has been cleared by his amazing first-round kick and knockout of challenger Vitor Belfort on Saturday night in UFC 126 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

Anderson Silva did not do much of anything in the first three minutes of his Ultimate Fighting Championship title defense Saturday night against Vitor Belfort. Then came the kick. Unleashing a wicked left kick that moved Belfort's jaw toward his nose, Silva knocked down the former UFC champion, hesitated briefly to ensure there were signs of alertness, then moved in for a right punch and a left that led referee Mario Yamasaki to stop the fight at the 3-minute 25-second mark.

Anderson Silva doesn't say much to reporters, letting his interpreter-manager be more expansive. The long-reigning middleweight champion of the Ultimate Fighting Championship can afford such comforts while riding a 12-0 record in the organization dating to 2006, but like his invincibility, tolerance with such smugness is slipping away. Silva, 35, faces his former training partner and former UFC champion Vitor Belfort, 33, in the main event of the UFC pay-per-view card Saturday night at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

For the third consecutive Ultimate Fighting Championship event in Las Vegas, one question dominates: So, when is Brock Lesnar fighting again? The UFC will stage a third straight title-less Vegas main event Saturday night when veteran light-heavyweights Randy Couture and Mark Coleman lead the card of UFC 109 at Mandalay Bay Events Center. "There's great fights on this card . . . me and Mark are a couple of old wrestlers banging heads, two active Hall of Famers," Couture said. The undercard features a middleweight bout between Nate Marquardt and Chael Sonnen, with the winner getting a future title shot against the winner of April's title bout between champion Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort.