UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman was a fairly late scratch for UFC 184 vs. Vitor Belfort after a training camp rib injury forced him to pull out of the bout. It is the third time Weidman-Belfort has had to be scheduled.
Belfort then reportedly wanted a new opponent, and for he and that opponent to fight for the interim middleweight title.
"What I did was I picked up the phone and I called Lyoto Machida," UFC president Dana White said. "The first thing Lyoto Machida said is, 'Send me the bout agreement.'" Calls were also placed to Gegard Mousasi, in Mousasi's own words as a Plan B.
"I was planning on going on holiday, but the UFC called me and asked me, 'Would you like to fight Vitor Belfort?' and I said I had to talk to my coaches because I didn't want to have that burn-out feeling again of fighting just because you have a fight," Mousasi said. He had just defeated Dan Henderson on January 24 at UFC on Fox 14.
"Then I said yes, but it wasn't like I challenged him. The UFC asked me to fight, and I said OK, I'm going to take the fight. Machida was first, and I was Plan B, but Vitor said no to both."
Then, Belfort released a statement demanding that his next fight be for the full middleweight title. That declaration hasn't sat well with Weidman, who hurled failed PED tests against Belfort.
"First of all, Vitor, he failed a drug test," Weidman said. "That's his second drug test that he failed. Usually he'd be out for at least a year, but I think they tested him when there was no bout agreement, so they couldn't really punish him the way they wanted to. He wasn't licensed. So the guy's lucky as anything that he's not in trouble.
"I mean, he's a two-time convicted juicehead at this point, and he's not realizing that. I understand that he hasn't fought in a long time, but that's his fault. I fought. I fought in July. That's six months ago, against Machida."
Belfort last fought in November 2013, when he defeated Henderson.
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