Mixed martial arts legend Vitor Belfort has yet to be paid for his cancelled fight at UFC St. Louis. Now it would appear that the UFC veteran is furious.
Belfort was set to make his retirement fight at Sunday night’s, Jan. 14, UFC Fight Night 124. In the night’s co-main event, the MMA legend was lined up to take on Uriah Hall.
However, Hall failed to appear to the official weigh-ins. As a result, the fight was pulled from the card on a day’s notice.
Taking to Instagram, Belfort has now revealed that he has yet to be paid for the suddenly cancelled fight.
“A message to the UFC now,” Belfort wrote, “I’m waiting for my paycheck. I did what I had to do – trained, was there on fight week, made weight. Where’s the respect?”
“It’s hard to understand after all the dedication and sacrifice, preparing mentally to retire from a sport I basically helped create, and that simply doesn’t happen,” Belfort added. “I have mixed feelings about what happened.
“My retirement fight didn’t go as I planned, but in my heart I know that somehow down the line everything will make sense.”
Speaking to UFC on FOX after UFC Fight Night 124, UFC President Dana White revealed that Vitor Belfort turned down a replacement opponent for the event.
“This thing went down, we worked quickly and we got Vitor a fight,” White said. “He could have fought tonight, he chose not to. We got him a fight in Boston. He chose not to fight in Boston. He chose not to fight then. I don’t know who the opponents were, but they told him we got him two fights.”
"Conor has said he's thinking about coming back in September. If he comes back in September, that's almost two years…that can't happen." — @danawhite
Dana speaks on #UFCSTL, Khabib, Tony and of course…Conor McGregor possibly being stripped. https://t.co/fTlT8sD2I3
— FOX Sports: UFC (@UFCONFOX) January 15, 2018