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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
"He's trying to take my belt. He's been caught cheating and I'm not going to let a cheating juicehead take my belt... I expect an even better Vitor Belfort. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise he's off this stuff. Maybe he doesn't have to worry about getting tired. I'm preparing for a Vitor we haven't seen yet, a guy who isn't afraid to go hard as he can right away and doesn't have to worry about getting tired. A lot of times we've seen him freeze in big fights. Maybe he was freezing, because he's a juicehead and he's afraid of getting tired... I'm going out there to completely dominate him. If I don't completely go out there and smoke him and dominate him, it's a loss in my eyes... He's a cheater. I want to completely destroy him."
-UFC Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman went full throttle in comments against his UFC 184 opponent Vitor Belfort during the UFC's "The Time is Now" press conference in Las Vegas on Monday (transcribed by Marc Raimondi at FoxSports.com).
Penick's Analysis: Weidman's completely justified in commenting like he has on Belfort, but he's also setting himself up for a downfall if he doesn't follow up. That's the issue with significant trash talking into fights, because a failure to back it up and win makes it look even worse than a normal loss might. There's more on the line here for Weidman when he's been so adamantly outspoken against Belfort - as others have - and it's set up for Belfort to try to turn that around on everyone who has gone with that line of conversation. Of course, Weidman remains the younger Champion with the edge with Belfort off TRT, and if Belfort's not taking anything else, we should see a clear difference from what he was able to do last year. It certainly elevates things for the fight itself, but Weidman has to be making sure he's able to follow through on the charged things he's said about the fight come Feb. 28.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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