Nobody could quite tell how serious Vitor Belfort was when he dropped CM Punk’s name in the discussion about his final opponent.
Belfort insists that he has one fight left in him before he hangs up his gloves after over 20 years in the Octagon.
A brutal knockout defeat to Kelvin Gastelum was Belfort’s third consecutive loss and the Brazilian knew that retirement time was fast approaching.
But Belfort, a former UFC light heavyweight champion, wants one more chance to go out on a victory and he wants to do it in his native Rio de Janeiro against a more beatable opponent than the ones he’s been matched up with in recent years.
“I’m going to talk to them (UFC), but I want this fight at 205lbs. I would love to do this fight in this class,” Belfort told AGFight last week.
“It would have to be an interesting fighter, but not a top fighter. I’ve been fighting good guys before: Dan Henderson, [Chris] Weidman, Dan Henderson, ‘Jacare’ [Souza], [Gegard] Mousasi and now Kelvin [Gastelum].
“These are all hard fights, so if you can book a smoother fight… What’s the name of that guy from WWE? CM Punk would be a good fight. CM Punk, let’s get it on. That would be a really good fight.”
Eyebrows were raised at the unexpected call out because Punk, real name Phil Brooks, has just one professional fight to his name, was steamrolled in that fight and competed at 170lbs for that fight.
Belfort’s suggestion that he would welcome such a favourable opponent has really bothered UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping, who was stopped by ‘The Phenom’ in 2013.
“This is a sign of the pussy that Vitor Belfort is,” Bisping said on his podcast Believe You Me, as transcribed by MMA Fighting. “This is the sign of a pussy that takes fucking steroids his entire career.
“If you take steroids, you are a fucking pussy because you’re so mentally weak that you feel that you can’t go out there and fight these people on a level playing field because you’re gonna get your ass kicked.
“So you worry, and you look, and you look for shortcuts, and you look how you can cheat, and you think, ‘Oh I’m gonna take these steroids and they’re gonna build my muscle and make me recover better’ and all this type of stuff.
“And they do give you advantages. They give you physical and psychological advantages. But if you need those advantages then you are a coward, you’re a fucking pussy, and you are a cheat, and the very fact that somebody would take steroids their entire career, then get their ass kicked, then call out CM Punk, I’m not surprised motherfuckers.
“It’s a simple as that and that just speaks volumes to the character and the level of a man that Vitor Belfort is. I wouldn’t fucking piss on him if he was on fire.”
So Bisping’s not a big Belfort fan then? Who knew?
