Dana White Comments on Vitor Belfort’s ‘Weird Situation,’ Mocks Bellator’s Brazilian TV Deal

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RIO DE JANEIRO -- UFC President Dana White is never one to mince words, and such was the case during Sunday’s “UFC 168 World Tour” stop in Rio.

Speaking with reporters in a post-press conference scrum, White discussed the future of Vitor Belfort. Despite already being a title contender at middleweight, the 36-year-old “Phenom” is moving to light heavyweight for his next bout, a Nov. 9 showdown with Dan Henderson in Goiania, Brazil. According to White, Belfort’s next opponent could be countryman Lyoto Machida.

“Vitor Belfort is in a weird situation in the UFC because Vitor Belfort puts himself in weird situations in the UFC. Every time a fight ends, he’s blowing my phone up,” said White, who wanted to match Belfort against Machida in a middleweight title eliminator. “We had fights that we wanted to make for Vitor, and then Vitor has his own ideas of what Vitor wants to do. Vitor has been difficult, so it puts Vitor in a difficult position.

“We wanted to do him and Tim Kennedy. [Vitor] didn’t want that fight. He didn’t feel that Tim Kennedy deserved to fight him, whatever his reasoning was,” White continued. “Vitor is difficult. We gotta see what happens with this fight with Vitor, and then we’ll see where Vitor is. Vitor might win this fight and then want to fight Cain Velasquez.”

The UFC boss also scoffed at the recently announced broadcast deal between Bellator MMA and Fox Sports Brazil, which a reporter referred to as “competition.”

“Is that competition? We’re on Globo,” said White. “Is Fox Sports that big down here that it’s bigger than Globo? No? Then I don’t give a s---.”