Former UFC champion Vitor Belfort is for sure done with MMA after his Sunday night bout against Uriah Hall.
The aging legend has done it all in his storied career, and comes from the Tito, Chuck, Couture era, that many call the golden age of fighting.
With his last fight this Sunday, Belfort took to the UFC Unfiltered podcast to confirm he is indeed retiring after Sunday night.
Here’s what he said:
“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 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.”
