{"id":65050,"date":"2013-07-31T12:00:45","date_gmt":"2013-07-31T19:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=65050"},"modified":"2022-02-06T12:55:38","modified_gmt":"2022-02-06T20:55:38","slug":"dana-white-likes-evans-vs-belfort-not-sonnen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/dana-white-likes-evans-vs-belfort-not-sonnen\/","title":{"rendered":"Dana White likes Evans vs. Belfort, not Sonnen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/dana-white2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/dana-white2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"390\" height=\"270\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-49192\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/dana-white2.jpg 390w, https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/dana-white2-300x208.jpg 300w, https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/dana-white2-361x250.jpg 361w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 390px) 100vw, 390px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nFormer UFC light heavyweight champion, Vitor Belfort (23-10 MMA, 12-6 UFC), said that he would rather return to a higher weight class than hang around at middleweight to fight the likes of Strikeforce import Tim Kennedy (16-4 MMA, 1-0 UFC).<\/p>\n<p>Well, that&#8217;s just fine with UFC President Dana White:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;Then let&#8217;s do him and Rashad (Evans),&#8221;<\/em>\u00a0 White told reporters at yesterday&#8217;s promotional world tour. <em>&#8220;He doesn&#8217;t want to fight Tim Kennedy? Let&#8217;s fight Rashad at 205.&#8221;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Vitor has stated that he is only interested in &#8216;title fights&#8217;. &#8220;The Phenom&#8221; has looked amazing in his last two octagon appearances, knocking out former Strikeforce champion Luke Rockhold and top contender Michael Bisping in the process.<\/p>\n<p>The lone non-title fight that seems to interest Vitor would be versus &#8220;The American Gangster&#8221;, Chael Sonnen. But, with Chael being booked to fight Shogun Rua at next months UFC on FOX Sports 1 debut, that fight is still\u00a0a long way from coming to fruition.<\/p>\n<p>As for now, nothing regarding Belfort&#8217;s future is official, except for the fact that he is officially benched until White puts his stamp of approval on a prospective opponent. Rashad has been training with Vitor at the Blackzilians&#8217; camp and would likely decline\u00a0the offer to fight &#8220;The Phenom&#8221;, which indicates that Dana&#8217;s matchmaking may have a hidden message: Fight Kennedy, or don&#8217;t fight.<\/p>\n<p>Who would you like to see Vitor fight next? Let&#8217;s hear it Penn Nation!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former UFC light heavyweight champion, Vitor Belfort (23-10 MMA, 12-6 UFC), said that he would rather return to a higher weight class than hang around at middleweight to fight the likes of Strikeforce import Tim Kennedy (16-4 MMA, 1-0 UFC). Well, that&#8217;s just fine with UFC President Dana White: &#8220;Then let&#8217;s do him and Rashad [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":49192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[2681],"tags":[199,255,562,612,747,13,907,4980,1057],"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>Dana White likes Evans vs. Belfort, not Sonnen | BJPenn.com<\/title>\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\/ufcnews\/dana-white-likes-evans-vs-belfort-not-sonnen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dana White likes Evans vs. Belfort, not Sonnen | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former UFC light heavyweight champion, Vitor Belfort (23-10 MMA, 12-6 UFC), said that he would rather return to a higher weight class than hang around at middleweight to fight the likes of Strikeforce import Tim Kennedy (16-4 MMA, 1-0 UFC). Well, that&#8217;s just fine with UFC President Dana White: &#8220;Then let&#8217;s do him and Rashad [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/dana-white-likes-evans-vs-belfort-not-sonnen\/\" \/>\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=\"2013-07-31T19:00:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-06T20:55:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/dana-white2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"390\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"270\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\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\/dana-white-likes-evans-vs-belfort-not-sonnen\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/dana-white-likes-evans-vs-belfort-not-sonnen\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chris Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/fe444b8007aa9105494afef8547151ff\"},\"headline\":\"Dana White likes Evans vs. Belfort, not Sonnen\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-31T19:00:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-06T20:55:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/dana-white-likes-evans-vs-belfort-not-sonnen\/\"},\"wordCount\":243,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Chael Sonnen\",\"Dana White\",\"Luke Rockhold\",\"Michael Bisping\",\"Rashad Evans\",\"Shogun Rua\",\"Tim Kennedy\",\"UFC on FOX Sports 1\",\"Vitor Belfort\"],\"articleSection\":[\"UFC NEWS\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/dana-white-likes-evans-vs-belfort-not-sonnen\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2013\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/dana-white-likes-evans-vs-belfort-not-sonnen\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/dana-white-likes-evans-vs-belfort-not-sonnen\/\",\"name\":\"Dana White likes Evans vs. Belfort, not Sonnen | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-31T19:00:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-06T20:55:38+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/dana-white-likes-evans-vs-belfort-not-sonnen\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/dana-white-likes-evans-vs-belfort-not-sonnen\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/dana-white-likes-evans-vs-belfort-not-sonnen\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UFC NEWS\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Dana White likes Evans vs. Belfort, not Sonnen\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; UFC News, Results &amp; Fight Videos\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"width\":600,\"height\":148,\"caption\":\"| BJPenn.com\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/fe444b8007aa9105494afef8547151ff\",\"name\":\"Chris Taylor\",\"description\":\"Manager of former two-division UFC champion BJ Penn and his website bjpenn.com. Follow me on Twitter - @CTaylor_96\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ctaylor_96\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/CTaylor_96\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/chris-taylor\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dana White likes Evans vs. Belfort, not Sonnen | BJPenn.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/dana-white-likes-evans-vs-belfort-not-sonnen\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dana White likes Evans vs. Belfort, not Sonnen | BJPenn.com","og_description":"Former UFC light heavyweight champion, Vitor Belfort (23-10 MMA, 12-6 UFC), said that he would rather return to a higher weight class than hang around at middleweight to fight the likes of Strikeforce import Tim Kennedy (16-4 MMA, 1-0 UFC). Well, that&#8217;s just fine with UFC President Dana White: &#8220;Then let&#8217;s do him and Rashad [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/dana-white-likes-evans-vs-belfort-not-sonnen\/","og_site_name":"| BJPenn.com","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","article_published_time":"2013-07-31T19:00:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-02-06T20:55:38+00:00","og_image":[{"width":390,"height":270,"url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/dana-white2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Chris Taylor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/CTaylor_96","twitter_site":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Chris Taylor","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/dana-white-likes-evans-vs-belfort-not-sonnen\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/dana-white-likes-evans-vs-belfort-not-sonnen\/"},"author":{"name":"Chris Taylor","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/fe444b8007aa9105494afef8547151ff"},"headline":"Dana White likes Evans vs. Belfort, not Sonnen","datePublished":"2013-07-31T19:00:45+00:00","dateModified":"2022-02-06T20:55:38+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/dana-white-likes-evans-vs-belfort-not-sonnen\/"},"wordCount":243,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"keywords":["Chael Sonnen","Dana White","Luke Rockhold","Michael Bisping","Rashad Evans","Shogun Rua","Tim Kennedy","UFC on FOX Sports 1","Vitor Belfort"],"articleSection":["UFC NEWS"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/dana-white-likes-evans-vs-belfort-not-sonnen\/#respond"]}],"copyrightYear":"2013","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/dana-white-likes-evans-vs-belfort-not-sonnen\/","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/dana-white-likes-evans-vs-belfort-not-sonnen\/","name":"Dana White likes Evans vs. Belfort, not Sonnen | BJPenn.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-07-31T19:00:45+00:00","dateModified":"2022-02-06T20:55:38+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/dana-white-likes-evans-vs-belfort-not-sonnen\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/dana-white-likes-evans-vs-belfort-not-sonnen\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/dana-white-likes-evans-vs-belfort-not-sonnen\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UFC NEWS","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Dana White likes Evans vs. Belfort, not Sonnen"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","name":"| BJPenn.com","description":"MMA &amp; UFC News, Results &amp; Fight Videos","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization","name":"| BJPenn.com","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","width":600,"height":148,"caption":"| BJPenn.com"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/fe444b8007aa9105494afef8547151ff","name":"Chris Taylor","description":"Manager of former two-division UFC champion BJ Penn and his website bjpenn.com. Follow me on Twitter - @CTaylor_96","sameAs":["http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ctaylor_96\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/CTaylor_96"],"url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/chris-taylor\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65050"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}