Oh, how quickly they forget.
Vitor Belfort recently spoke to Sherdog and decried the fact certain UFC fighters have used Twitter to request title fights. “I don’t like it how people are using Twitter trying [to get opponents]. I want to fight for the belt — that’s my goal. That’s the goal of a fighter, that’s the goal of an athlete in the UFC. That’s the goal of Vitor Belfort. I’m a winner. I’m a champion.”
Today, Belfort became what he hates, taking to Twitter to ask UFC president Dana White for the opportunity to face the winner of UFC 162’s main event between middleweight champion Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman:
I understand that Belfort would feel the way he does about fighters these days using social media to call out (and get) certain fights they find desirable. That tactic can get old, especially when the fights screw other fighters out of possible title shots (hello, Anthony Pettis).
But to point fingers at the fighters that use that tactic, and then to do it himself? Well, it’s a bad look.
The question of whether Belfort deserves the shot is a tricky one. Yes, he’s the No. 2 middleweight in the UFC, but he has a recent first-round knockout defeat to Silva on his record. There’s also the whole pesky TRT situation that is hanging over his head.
The issue for the UFC is that the middleweight division is not particularly stacked at this moment. The promotion’s matchmakers have to be thinking if not Belfort, then who?
And that’s not an easy question to answer.
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