Vitor Belfort Turned Down Bout With Gegard Mousasi
UFC middleweight title contender Vitor Belfort has been big news in the last week, as he firstly got removed from UFC 184 due to another Chris Weidman Injury. Then there came the news that “The Phenom” was not really up for fighting Lyoto Machida for the interim title, even after texting Dana White about his displeasure in being made to sit out.
Now, according to a report on FOX Sports, we learn that Gegard Mousasi was also turned away by the Brazilian banger:
“I was planning on going on holiday, but the UFC called me and asked me ‘would you like to fight Vitor Belfort?’ and I said I had to talk to my coaches because I didn’t want to have that burn out feeling again of fighting just because you have a fight, I really wanted to take my rest, but after talking with my coaches and it was such a big opportunity and I was in the mood to fight.”
“He’s going for the belt, that’s his main focus, he wants to have that achievement,” said Mousasi. “That’s his goal I believe. I understand he doesn’t want to risk it. He doesn’t want to risk losing and losing his title shot. It’s a risk and at this point in his career, he doesn’t need to take the risk. I can’t blame him. I met him, I even trained with him once. It’s not personal. They offered me the fight and I said yes. I’ve got nothing against him.”
So fans of Vitor Belfort will argue that he is the rightful contender to the title, so shouldn’t have to fight again. But ponder Alexander Gustafsson who took two more fights while still being the number one contender after a razor tight fight at UFC 165 with Jon Jones. Johny Hendricks had a huge run up to the title too.
As it stands, Belfort is on a three fight win streak, impressive as it is, that was back in 2013 and guys like Yoel Romero, Jacare Souza and Luke Rockhold have scored huge wins since. All this, and “The All-American” will be back in training in 6-8 weeks as we learned yesterday. Should the UFC push for an interim title fight for Vitor Belfort, or is that too much too soon?
