Vitor Belfort Announces He’s Coming Out Of Retirement
Mixed martial arts (MMA) fans reportedly haven’t seen the last of Vitor Belfort inside the cage.
Earlier today (Mon. December 17, 2018) Belfort joined “Ariel Helwani‘s MMA Show" and revealed that he will be coming out of retirement and will fight once again: (opens in a new tab)”>Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show” and revealed that he will be coming out of retirement and will fight once again:
“No, I’m a free agent. We’re in conversations. I have some good news. 2019 I’ll come back. I just had some issues, I was dealing with a surgery – I had a major surgery. I had the size of a golfball inside my joints, I had been fighting my last five fights with this joint, in my left shoulder.
“It was a spur, so what it was, no one wants to do that surgery, so I went to the best doctors. Everyone was very afraid that they could cut the nerve, so it was hard because that created hesitation – and a lot of stuff happened but I’m not going to talk about it.
” I’m here to talk about the new beginning. So I went to one of the great doctors in Colorado, he was courageous enough to say ‘I can take it out.’ So we did that, we cleaned it up – I feel amazing.”
Ill-Advised Return?
Belfort initially retired from MMA competition back in May after suffering a knockout loss to Lyoto Machida. He was finished in horrendous fashion in the second round by way of a front kick to the face. Belfort was finished in four of his last five fights (however, his loss to Kelvin Gastelum was overturned to a no contest).
He hasn’t competed for a major title since 2015 when he faced Chris Weidman for the UFC middleweight championship. Belfort was finished via TKO in the first round. It will be interesting to see where Belfort fights for his return bout, and who he will be matched up against.
