Vitor Belfort Explains Split from ONE Championship Ahead of Triller Boxing Match

Former UFC mild heavyweight champion and middleweight title challenger Vitor Belfort is the most recent blended martial artist crossing over to boxing below the Triller Struggle Membership banner.

Following Ben Askren, Bellator MMA and ONE Championship welterweight champ, Belfort (26-14, 1NC) is making the bounce on June 19. He received’t be taking over something near a educated boxer — as a substitute, he’ll face common social media character “The Actual Tarzann” Mike Holston.

The boxing match-up additionally implies that Belfort has parted methods with ONE Championship, who signed the veteran fighter in 2019. That, with out ever having fought for the promotion. Throughout a digital media day to advertise his Triller bout, Belfort opened up about what occurred — and prompt that he and ONE merely couldn’t get a struggle booked with an opponent all agreed on.

“They may not shut the struggle. My agent, Lloyd, was making an attempt to shut many fights. For some motive, their agenda, my agenda, we couldn’t consolidate it,” defined Belfort. “My contract got here to an finish, and Chatri [Sityodtong, ONE Championship Chairman and CEO] is a pleasant man, an excellent good friend of mine. He stated ‘Vitor, we can’t discover you a struggle.’ You already know, this pandemic hit, it was fairly loopy. And I believe it simply didn’t align, what they’re doing with what I needed to do.”

The identical day he spoke to Sityodtong, revealed Belfort, the boxing alternative with Triller Struggle Membership arose. “I spoke to him, and sort of the identical day, it appeared, this chance. The chance was wonderful.”

It wasn’t the primary time he’d been provided a shot within the boxing realm. “Within the yr 2000, I used to be presupposed to migrate to boxing. This lawyer had million greenback contracts, he needed [me] to go away MMA to go field,” stated Belfort. “Boxing being my bread and butter. I introduced boxing to UFC. If they’d let me do MMA and boxing collectively, I’d do it. However I had to decide on one, and again on the time, my dream was to make MMA massive, and I did that. And now it’s sort of migrating to this subsequent section.”

Belfort did go on to take a single boxing match in 2006. In his native Brazil, Belfort knocked out Josemario Neves inside a spherical. What his occurring now, nonetheless, Belfort sees as a shift within the struggle sport.

“I’m actually excited with what Triller’s doing. I believe they’re shifting how fight sports activities is migrating. I consider quickly we’re going to have a [hybridization] between boxers and MMA guys, to see who has the very best fingers,” he stated.

After all, Triller has its share of detractors. Shoddy matchmaking and abysmal pacing to their occasions are among the many criticisms. The prospect of sitting by means of an extended card, nonetheless, doesn’t section Belfort. “I come from a completely totally different background. I’m a prepared man,” he instructed Cageside Press. “I don’t consider in anything, simply being within the second. You may solely management what you’ll be able to management. So I don’t want that a lot time, simply following what to do, and do it. That’s it. It’s quite simple.”

Watch the complete Triller Struggle Membership media day look from Vitor Belfort above.