It’s become increasingly obvious that Vitor Belfort has taken a shining to beating up only the pastiest, whitest members of the middleweight division lately. Michael Bisping? Ghastly. Luke Rockhold? Surprisingly pale for a surfer, brah. Tim Kennedy also seemed to fit that bill, which made it all the more confusing when Belfort turned down the fight a couple days ago. But that’s what happened, as Kennedy officially broke the news that the fight was off on Twitter yesterday.
However, according to Ariel Helwani, Belfort has set his sights on yet another fair-skinned member of the middleweight division: Chael P. Sonnen.
Yes, even though Chael already has a headlining fight scheduled with Mauricio Rua at “Fight Night” in August — his last at light-heavyweight for the time being — he’s being called out by Belfort, specifically at a catchweight. It is…odd to say the least. Belfort(‘s wife) stated that he would only be accepting a title fight at middleweight next, yet he is preemptively calling out a guy (albeit at catchweight) who could potentially be on a three-fight losing streak?
As you would expect, “The American Gangster” has already agreed to a fight with Belfort, but under even more ridiculous circumstances. On yesterday’s edition of UFC Tonight, Sonnen responded to Belfort by declaring that he would only accept the fight under the stipulation that the victor faced the winner of the Silva/Weidman rematch at UFC 168 in December. As for the event that Sonnen would prefer to face Belfort at: It’s UFC 168. Classic Sonnen!
We’d normally ask you what you think of a potential Sonnen/Belfort matchup, but what does it matter, really? Chael Sonnen is a closer, and closers get to drink coffee ground from the finest Brazilian beans while us losers fight for a set of steak knives in the unemployment line. It’s a metaphor.