Two of three parties were on board for a double retirement fight between Vitor Belfort and Michael Bisping. All the UFC had to do was get the former middleweight champion in “The Count” to agree to fight his former foe.
Instead, Bisping turned down the fight, and explained on his podcast that there’s nothing anyone can do to convince him to accept.
Bisping stated, “I’m not fighting Vitor Belfort in London. I’m not fighting Vitor Belfort in London. I am not fighting Vitor Belfort in London. 100 percent, I’m not fighting him. Zero percent chance.”
“I may or may not have one more fight. So here’s the thing. I don’t like Vitor Belfort. People looking at this video are probably saying, ‘Look at his eye, he’s a f**king mess.’ It is part of the reason why I never wanted to do a video podcast before, because my eye is a mess and it was Vitor Belfort that did it and he was roided out of his mind. He’s a known drug cheat. I don’t like the guy. I find him to be a hypocrite. It’s his last fight and he’s probably going to juice like crazy again anyway because who gives a f**k. ‘Oooh, I failed. So what? Retired. Done. Gone.’”
“And not just that. For me, the main reason is I don’t like the guy and I just don’t want to be associated with him and I know if we were to fight, it would just turn into a typical Michael Bisping performance of trash talk and all this type of thing at the weigh-ins and the press conference and all that stuff. I’d be talking s**t and I don’t want to do that.
“This is my – if I fight in London – it’s my last ever fight, and I want to handle myself the way I handled myself the majority of the time. I don’t want it to be some bitter rivalry with a guy that has caused me lasting disfigurement and that I’m emotionally charged up against. I’d rather go out there, put my best foot forward, enjoy the moment, fight somebody that I respect, fight somebody that’s gonna be a challenge but I have a lot of respect for, and do it in a classy way.
“I don’t want to be remembered for being a d**k, and I feel that Vitor Belfort would bring out that side of my personality. It’s my last ever fight, I want to go there and enjoy it. I want to embrace the moment, I want to live in the moment, I want to be respectful towards my opponent, basically thank all the fans of Great Britain for always supporting my career. . . not lunging and arguing and swearing and going at the guy and acting regrettably because years later I would look back and I would regret that.”
Now, Vitor Belfort has responded in kind, and pretty much called Bisping a coward for turning down the highly anticipated rematch between legends.
Taking to his instagram Belfort stated,
What a shame @mikebisping !!! @ufc just informed me that you have declined the fight. I understand you are scared. The images above pretty much explain it all…
So stop pretending that you are tough and just admit that you are afraid. And I thought you were man enough to step up in the octagon with me again, my mistake… unfortunately looks like we will not be delivering to the fans the fight they want to see… Happy retirement, you must be feeling amazing leaving the sport thru the back door… To be a legend is not to everyone!
