Former UFC light heavyweight champion Vitor Belfort severely injured his left knee leading up to UFC 224 bout against Brazilian star Lyoto Machida, which took place at the Jeunesse Arena in his home city of Rio de Janeiro on May 12.
The report of the injury first reported by Combate. The doctors suggested “The Phenom” to withdrawal from his scheduled contest, but Belfort made a call to fight despite an injury.
Former UFC champion Machida eventually knocked out Vitor Belfort with a front head kick in the second round of their middleweight fight. At the conclusion of the fight, Belfort, lain his gloves in the middle of the Octagon and announced his retirement.
On Thursday UFC legend posted on social media, didn’t use his injury as an excuse for his loss:
As per MMA Junkie “The Phenom” didn’t disclose any information to the athletic commission (CABMMA) for fear of getting removed from the fight.
“In the physical exam, where such injury should be communicated and/or identified by the physician who evaluated him, it had no information related to it,” CABMMA stated. “In the pre-fight medical held at the weigh-ins, he again did not mention, complain nor disclose such injury to the commission’s physician and, therefore, was cleared for the fight.”
Belfort, 41 holds a career record of (26-14 MMA, 15-11 UFC) with one UFC Light Heavyweight title reign to his credit.
