Vitor Belfort: TUF Brazil 3 Brawl Between Wanderlei Silva & Chael Sonnen Embarrassed Me
No. 2-ranked UFC middleweight contender Vitor “The Phenom” Belfort has seen his fair share of controversy throughout his lengthy rollercoaster ride of an MMA career.
He’s currently embroiled in some that forced him out of his scheduled UFC 173 title fight with Chris Weidman. After the NSAC and UFC made an overarching decision to ban testosterone-replacement therapy (TRT) in mixed martial arts (MMA), Belfort needed time to get accustomed to life without the hotly debated treatment.
In the meantime, Belfort is keeping tabs on current events in MMA. When The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) Brazil 3 coaches Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva got into a highly publicized brawl on the show’s sixth episode, Belfort didn’t like what he saw whatsoever.
“The Phenom” took to his Facebook page to voice his disgust, noting that the whole thing sets a terrible example for children who look up to fighters for inspiration (translated via MMA Fighting):
“The brawl between Wanderlei Silva and Chael Sonnen at TUF Brazil embarrassed me. First because MMA is not violence, is a fight between two guys that are prepared for it and inside an Octagon. That’s what I do. I don’t brawl, I fight. Second, there’s no room for this kind of behavior in a sport like MMA in a time that the sport has its rules inside and outside the Octagon.
Third and most importantly, MMA can’t influence this behavior that ends in assault as if it were the appropriate model of behavior. Millions of young kids suffer with violence inside and outside their schools, and the television can’t be driving this behavior, so the athletes need to represent control no matter what.”
MMA fighters must urgently be aware that the behavior inside and outside the Octagon can influence millions of people in a good or a bad way. I chose to influence for good because MMA also chose this path. Anything outside of that is no longer MMA, so it definitely not me.”
Belfort makes some good points about the line being crossed over from regulated fighting to assault, and indeed Sonnen labeled his attack by Team Wanderlei “straight up illegal.” Silva and Belfort’s home country of Brazil is already rife with poverty and violence, so airing an outside-the-cage brawl on a show filmed there undoubtedly sends the wrong message to children looking to get into the sport.
It may drive ratings, and many have argued that it may have even been staged to do just that. Regardless, all-out street fights have no place in a sport that is still trying to get accepted into mainstream culture.
Wand and Sonnen have a ton of bad blood that is set to get resolved at UFC 175 on July 5. Any other violence puts a black eye on the sport of MMA as Belfort noted. What were your thoughts on the extracurricular scuffle?
