Vitor Belfort a former UFC light-heavyweight and tournament champion (26-13 1 NC) aims to retire this Sunday, following his middleweight fight against Uriah Hall in St. Louis.
Belfort will square off against Hall in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night inside Scottrade Center. The 40-year-old Brazilian has been fighting since 1996 and is about to strap on the gloves said it will be the final show of his career.
Belfort held a pioneer in the sport and has fought likes of, Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, Kazushi Sakuraba, Jon Jones, and beat Randy Couture, Wanderlei Silva, Dan Henderson, Luke Rockhold and Michael Bisping, among others.
Vitor Belfort was recently speaking on the UFC Unfiltered podcast, where he revealed his plan to retire this weekend.
“This is my retirement fight. After that I’m going to put my body to rest. This is it. Breaking news. I think I did more than enough. Just to think back, sometimes I flashback just like Matt [Sera] said, and I’m like, ‘Wow, I’m still doing this, wow man, this is crazy.’ I’m very thankful, but I think my body need to rest. I have other things, I have a business of my own, I developed have a system, I developed a group class training system that we’re going to franchise. I just want to leave to help the sport in a way, work with the sport and help and do other things. We got to know the time to start and I think we need to know the time to end and it’s about time.”
“You cannot tell me that the 40-year-old has a fresh body. Of course, it’s not the same. I’m very fortunate that I knew how to, I had a lot of experience and I had the chance to work with the best coaches and fitness products in the world, so I knew how to take care of my body, but I think it’s time you know. I’ve got kids and I want to be able to, I think I donate a lot of time in a lot of stuff to the sport and I think it’s time. I see the sport is growing and there are great talents. I’m just leaving the sport where guys in my era are never expected to still be fighting and still be relevant. I think I need to walk away and that was my journey. I accomplished a lot of great things and I want to do all the great things. I’m about to start on my second journey of life and I’m happy.”
Belfort was suspended for nine months back in 2006, after tested positive for an anabolic steroid by USADA. Vitor’s use of testosterone-replacement therapy (TRT) up until USADA banned the treatment in 2014. It will always be an asterisk next to Belfort’s name when talking his legacy.
Belfort last win was against Nate Marquardt, who just retired himself.
It’s an incredible career that Belfort has had which will end with his fight against Uriah Hall this weekend.
Do you think he will manage to come out top in his retirement bout?
