Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight No. 1 contender, Vitor Belfort, was not interested in fighting Lyoto Machida for the interim title at UFC 184 once UFC champion Chris Weidman was injured, but had Yoel Romero been in the mix, "The Phenom" may still be on the February pay-per-view (PPV) card.
Belfort went off on his critics yesterday on Instagram, noting Weidman was at fault for the continuous postponement of their title fight, and his sole focus is on the undisputed UFC middleweight championship.
Even though it seemed "The Phenom" was uninterested in an interim title, Belfort's wife and manager Joana Prado took to Instagram earlier today to explain that her husband would have taken an interim title fight had it been against Yoel Romero.
Here is the translation from MMAFighting:
"Vitor Belfort didn't close the deal I was expecting when I asked Romero for the interim, so we decided to wait for Weidman in May. It is what it is. I know we will come back stronger than ever, even when the situations are bad!"
If you recall, "Soldier of God" was initially slated to take on Ronaldo Souza on the PPV portion of UFC 184 in what many considered a No. 1 contender bout, but "Jacare" fell ill with pneumonia earlier this month, forcing the bout to be postponed to a later date.
For now it seems Belfort will not be competing at UFC 184, and the UFC women's bantamweight title fight between Ronda Rousey and Cat Zingano will remain as the main event bout for the February PPV.
See the reworked UFC 184 fight card and line up here.