“We don’t think that is fair with Vitor a fight with a guy with a such different style and with nothing to lose. He has been training for more than six months to fight a orthodox wrestler. Now he would have less than a month to prepare for a southpaw karateka. I was the first one to say no.”

“I think that a fight against Yoel Romero, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, Luke Rockhold or Mark Munoz wouldn’t affect the training so much but against Machida it would be all different.”

In a recent interview with The Brazilian Media (Tatame.com), Vitor Belfort’s BJJ coach Gilbert Burns revealed that the UFC offered up Lyoto Machida in place of the injured Chris Weidman.

Belfort has opted to wait for Weidman to regain his health.