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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
The UFC made an effort to salvage a Vitor Belfort fight for UFC 184 next month after the injury suffered by Champ Chris Weidman, but according to Globo in Brazil, Belfort turned down a proposed fight with Lyoto Machida for an Interim Title.
According to Belfort's jiu jitsu coach, Gilbert Burns, in a separate interview with Tatame, they didn't think there was enough time to truly prepare for Machida.
"We don't think that is fair with Vitor a fight with a guy with a such different style and with nothing to lose," Burns said (translated by Fernando Arbex at BloodyElbow.com). "He has been training for more than six months to fight a orthodox wrestler. Now he would have less than a month to prepare for a southpaw karateka. I was the first one to say no."
"I think that a fight against Yoel Romero, Ronaldo 'Jacare' Souza, Luke Rockhold, or Mark Munoz wouldn't affect the training so much but against Machida it would be all different."
Penick's Analysis: That would have been one hell of a fight for the Interim Title, but I understand Burns' reasoning here behind the camp turning it down. Machida is such a unique fighter that anyone trying to fight him on four weeks notice is not a good proposition, but with even more on the line, it would be extremely risky for Belfort to take that one. It would have been an exciting and intriguing replacement fight, but it wouldn't have been the wisest decision for Belfort at this point.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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