Words don’t always hurt. Sometimes they serve only to awaken a slumbering giant like UFC middleweight champ Chris Weidman.
The 185-pound king was recently forced to pull out of his end-of-the-year title bout against Vitor Belfort at UFC 181 after suffering a broken hand in training. Belfort, the top contender in the middleweight division, wasn’t too pleased to hear that he would have to wait until 2015 to receive another shot at UFC gold.
During an interview with Combate.com (h/t BloodyElbow), Belfort accused Weidman of using the injury as an excuse to hold on to the title over the Christmas holidays. He even threw out the idea of the UFC instating an interim title in light of Weidman’s absence.
Though incredibly confident, Weidman has never been the type of fighter to purposely rock the boat in the media. He is typically a calm and collected individual.
On Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, fans got a close glimpse of another side to Weidman. After hearing Belfort’s comments, the Hofstra alumnus went on a verbal tirade, promising to “completely embarrass” the MMA legend: “I’m going to completely embarrass him in that cage, I’m going to make him look like an old man who withered away. I’m going to try to embarrass him now. … Just completely make a mockery of him.”
Weidman and Belfort were originally slated to fight at UFC 173 in May, but Belfort, an avid user of Testosterone Replacement Therapy, decided not to apply for a license to fight in Nevada after the Nevada State Athletic Commission made the decision to abolish the use of TRT.
Former UFC light heavyweight champ Lyoto Machida stepped in as a replacement opponent for Weidman, but the middleweight title bout didn’t actually take place until July at UFC 175.
Having just competed and defeated Machida in July, Weidman wasn’t too happy about having his willingness to fight come into question by a fighter who hasn’t competed in nearly a year. Belfort hasn’t stepped foot in the cage since his first-round knockout win over Dan Henderson back in November at UFC Fight Night 32:
It doesn’t make any sense, it’s not like I’ve been off for a year. I just fought in July. This guy hasn’t fought since November. We were supposed to fight in July, and he had to pull out of the fight, and we know why he had to pull out of the fight, yeah, he failed a freaking drug test.
Both Belfort and Weidman will finally get the opportunity to step into the cage and settle things on an unconfirmed date in early 2015.
Jordy McElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA writer for Rocktagon.
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