{"id":128218,"date":"2015-02-02T12:56:53","date_gmt":"2015-02-02T20:56:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=128218"},"modified":"2022-02-04T19:51:40","modified_gmt":"2022-02-05T03:51:40","slug":"belfort-open-fight-romero-just-machida-ufc-184","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/belfort-open-fight-romero-just-machida-ufc-184\/","title":{"rendered":"Belfort was open to fight Romero, just not Machida at UFC 184"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Vitor-Belfort1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Vitor-Belfort1.jpg\" alt=\"Vitor Belfort\" width=\"550\" height=\"381\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-116311\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Vitor-Belfort1.jpg 550w, https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Vitor-Belfort1-300x207.jpg 300w, https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Vitor-Belfort1-361x250.jpg 361w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nChris Weidman and Vitor Belfort have been scheduled to fight for the UFC&#8217;s middleweight title on three separate occasions.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately for fight fans, the grudge match has still not come to fruition, due to back-to-back injuries suffered by the &#8220;All American&#8221; champion.<\/p>\n<p>When Weidman was forced to pull out of February&#8217;s UFC 184 headliner, Vitor Belfort asked the UFC for an interim title fight to be made.<\/p>\n<p>The UFC obliged and offered Belfort an interim title fight against former light heavyweight title holder Lyoto Machida.<\/p>\n<p>However, Vitor eventually opted against fighting Machida, claiming he would not fight anyone but Weidman unless the UFC stripped the &#8220;All American&#8221; of his title.<\/p>\n<p>Vitor&#8217;s words via his official Facebook Page:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;My focus was always the middleweight belt and I climbed the ladder to achieve my position,&#8221; Belfort wrote. &#8220;This is why I won&#8217;t fight for an interim, but if UFC gives 8 weeks and the middleweight belt available for dispute I fight with anyone from the ranking. Not for an interim, but the middleweight belt!&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>With that said, it appears that Belfort was initially interested in fighting Yoel Romero for an interim title:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Vitor Belfort didn&#8217;t close the deal I was expecting when I asked Romero for the interim, so we decided to wait for Weidman in May,&#8221; Belfort\u2019s wife and manager Joana Prado posted on her Instagram on Monday. &#8220;It is what it is. I know we will come back stronger than ever, even when the situations are bad!&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>With the news, fans will now have to wait until May to see a UFC middleweight title fight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chris Weidman and Vitor Belfort have been scheduled to fight for the UFC&#8217;s middleweight title on three separate occasions. Unfortunately for fight fans, the grudge match has still not come to fruition, due to back-to-back injuries suffered by the &#8220;All American&#8221; champion. When Weidman was forced to pull out of February&#8217;s UFC 184 headliner, Vitor [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":120484,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[2681],"tags":[220,554,9654,1057,4813],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Belfort was open to fight Romero, just not Machida at UFC 184 | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former UFC champ Vitor Belfort says he would have fought Romero at UC 184, but that he wasn&#039;t interested in facing Machida. 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Find out why on BJPENN.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/belfort-open-fight-romero-just-machida-ufc-184\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-02-02T20:56:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-05T03:51:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Vitor-weidman1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"550\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"381\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris Taylor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/CTaylor_96\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chris Taylor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/belfort-open-fight-romero-just-machida-ufc-184\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/belfort-open-fight-romero-just-machida-ufc-184\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chris Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/fe444b8007aa9105494afef8547151ff\"},\"headline\":\"Belfort was open to fight Romero, just not Machida at UFC 184\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-02-02T20:56:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-05T03:51:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/belfort-open-fight-romero-just-machida-ufc-184\/\"},\"wordCount\":275,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Chris Weidman\",\"llyoto machida\",\"UFC 184\",\"Vitor Belfort\",\"Yoel Romero\"],\"articleSection\":[\"UFC NEWS\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2015\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/belfort-open-fight-romero-just-machida-ufc-184\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/belfort-open-fight-romero-just-machida-ufc-184\/\",\"name\":\"Belfort was open to fight Romero, just not Machida at UFC 184 | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-02-02T20:56:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-05T03:51:40+00:00\",\"description\":\"Former UFC champ Vitor Belfort says he would have fought Romero at UC 184, but that he wasn't interested in facing Machida. 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