EXCLUSIVE | Vitor Belfort Down To Fight ‘Beast’ Yoel Romero
Vitor Belfort says he is down to fight long-time middleweight contender Yoel Romero who was recently released from the UFC.
Romero was shockingly cut last week after losing three consecutive fights against elite 185lb fighters Israel Adesanya, Paulo Costa, and Robert Whittaker. UFC boss Dana White pointed to the Cuban’s poor form and age (44) as key reasons behind his release from the promotion.
Belfort has not competed since ending his UFC run with defeat against Lyoto Machida at UFC 224 in 2018. In March 2019 he signed to fight with ONE Championship but as 2020 comes to a close ‘The Phenom’ is still in search of an opponent to debut against.
In an interview with LowKickMMA, Belfort revealed he is more than willing to fight Romero.
“For sure,” Belfort said when asked if he’d fight Romero” Come on man, that guy is a beast and my age so that would be great. That would be a great fight too.”
Belfort understands from a business perspective why Romero was cut by the UFC who he says are now in such a powerful position fighters are willing to fight for free and fans are willing to watch a lesser product.
“I see what Dana says. I see a huge market being created now,” Belfort said. ”It’s very easy to see how UFC market. They want young guys. They wanna pay not a lot of money for these young guys. And they want people because people want to fight for the UFC for free. So, Dana’s (like) why am I paying these guys a lot of money if I have this guy and they want to fight for free?
“Now the UFC (has) created a brand they don’t’ need more athletes. So they don’t value. Even Jon Jones they don’t have value that much. Maybe (Conor) McGregor but they don’t want to put the money behind the fighters because they have a very good business model where I don’t have to pay to have the viewership. I can pay (fighters) less and still have the same viewership.”
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