Many fans thought this Saturday would be the last time they would see former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Vitor “The Phenom” Belfort in the cage.
But apparently Belfort has other plans.
While the 40-year-old MMA legend originally said he planned on retiring after his fight at UFC 212 this weekend, he now says he wants to continue.
A trip to Canada’s world-famous Tristar changed his mind:
“I went to Canada with Tristar, a great camp. Something stirred in me,” Vitor told MMA Fighting. “They stir something in me. I feel really motivated.”
Vitor also talked about a rather interesting idea: a legend’s league – i.e., a league specifically for older fighters. Belfort says he would like to have a big fight in this hypothetical league against another former champion, Chuck Liddell – a man he fought and lost to almost 15 years ago at UFC 37.5 back in 2002:
Liddell is very interesting, not just for me but for the fans. I think about the legend league, I think the UFC should do it and I think that would be a good start. Chuck is a legend, we fought in the past. I think I won that fight but they gave it to him. Back in the days he was managed by the owners of the UFC and Dana. Today is totally different.
I see it as one of the options, the many options the UFC has to pursue it. We have so many legends in the UFC and so many things could happen in the future.
While no MMA promotion has ever done a league specifically for legends, other promotions have pit older MMA fighters against each other. Last year, Bellator put the 49-year-old (now 50-year-old) Royce Gracie against the 52-year-old (now 53-year-old) Ken Shamrock at the promotion’s 149th event. Over 14,000 people turned up to see the event, and the gate was over $1,000,000. Both Shamrock and Gracie fought at the UFC’s first ever event, which happened almost 25 years ago.
But how well would a league dedicated entirely to legend’s do?
You can check out Vitor’s interview with MMA Fighting below.
