{"id":347623,"date":"2020-04-20T07:28:48","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T14:28:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=347623"},"modified":"2020-04-20T07:28:48","modified_gmt":"2020-04-20T14:28:48","slug":"vitor-belfort-one-debut-was-in-the-works-before-pandemic-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/one-championship\/vitor-belfort-one-debut-was-in-the-works-before-pandemic-hit\/","title":{"rendered":"Vitor Belfort: ONE debut was in the works before pandemic hit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Vitor Belfort says his ONE Championship debut was in the works before the coronavirus pandemic took hold.<\/p>\n<p>Belfort revealed that his debut was nearly finalized in an interview with MMA Junkie.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo my agent has been taking to Chatri [Sityodtong] to finalize a fight, but then all of this came along,\u201d Belfort told <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/2020\/04\/vitor-belfort-was-working-on-one-championship-debut-before-coronavirus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MMA Junkie<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy. Everything is put on hold, but I\u2019m definitely looking forward to step back into action and bring something (new), reinvent myself again. I think that will be the last time and for sure, I\u2019m excited to go back to action.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Belfort did not divulge who he was going to fight, ONE Championship heavyweight Alain Ngalani recently told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/sport\/martial-arts\/mixed-martial-arts\/article\/3080279\/one-championship-alain-ngalani-talks-vitor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">South China Morning Post<\/a> that he was in talks to fight Belfort, so perhaps that&#8217;s the matchup we were going to get before the pandemic hit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, I had a call from Chatri at the beginning of the year, and we were preparing for what he said was the biggest fight for me, the biggest of the year,\u201d Ngalani told South China Morning Post. \u201cIt was to be announced, but then because of the virus everything has been on hold.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t really want to mention it right now because it\u2019s still under negotiation, so I don\u2019t want to throw it out there, but there has been talk for me first to go into a super fight,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a few names. Among others, we have Vitor Belfort who is a megastar and it would be a pleasure for me and a huge fight for me to have with him. But nothing is sure yet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a once in a lifetime thing. Personally Vitor Belfort has been a megastar for me and a huge, huge, huge influence. It\u2019s an honour if ever I have to cross him.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"One championship&#039;s Alain Ngalani targets Vitor Belfort fight\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/e6C37o25E0Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Vitor Belfort has not fought since he was knocked out by Lyoto Machida in May, 2018. This bout marked his final UFC appearance. He later signed with ONE, but has yet to make his debut.<\/p>\n<p>Alain Ngalani, who is a first and foremost a kickboxer and Muay Thai competitor, is 4-5 in MMA. In his last fight, he was knocked out by former Cage Warriors heavyweight champ Mauro Cerilli.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPENN.com<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0on 4\/20\/2020. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vitor Belfort says his ONE Championship debut was in the works before the coronavirus pandemic took hold. Belfort revealed that his debut was nearly finalized in an interview with MMA Junkie. \u201cSo my agent has been taking to Chatri [Sityodtong] to finalize a fight, but then all of this came along,\u201d Belfort told MMA Junkie. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":311104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[19776,10208],"tags":[],"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>Vitor Belfort: ONE debut was in the works before pandemic hit | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former UFC champ Vitor Belfort says his ONE Championship debut was in the works before the coronavirus pandemic took hold.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/one-championship\/vitor-belfort-one-debut-was-in-the-works-before-pandemic-hit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" 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