When Vitor Belfort named CM Punk as his opponent of choice for his last UFC fight, Michael Bisping was not impressed.
With just one fight remaining on his UFC contract, Belfort will look to end his career in front of a hometown crowd. Looking like the chips may fall in the right place for Belfort, UFC 212 sees the promotion visit Rio de Janeiro in June. OK, so venue sorted (potentially). Now, for an opponent. How about a fighter with a 0-1 professional MMA record? CM Punk fits the bill; fans will certainly see that as remarkable match-making…
Whether Belfort’s comments were serious or not, calling out a fighter widely regarded as lacking the skills necessary to be considered a serious mixed martial artist has left many scratching their heads. UFC middleweight champion of the world Michael Bisping, on the other hand, has taken another route and absolutely destroyed Belfort for his choice of opponent (transcription via MMAFighting):
“This is a sign of the p**sy that Vitor Belfort is. This is the sign of a p**sy that takes f**king steroids his entire career. If you take steroids, you are a f**king p**sy because you’re so mentally weak that you feel that you can’t go out there and fight these people on a level playing field because you’re gonna get your ass kicked. So you worry, and you look, and you look for shortcuts, and you look how you can cheat, and you think, ‘Oh I’m gonna take these steroids and they’re gonna build my muscle and make me recover better’ and all this type of stuff.
“And they do give you advantages. They give you physical and psychological advantages. But if you need those advantages then you are a coward, you’re a f**king p**sy, and you are a cheat, and the very fact that somebody would take steroids their entire career, then get their ass kicked, then call out CM Punk, I’m not surprised motherf**kers. It’s a simple as that and that just speaks volumes to the character and the level of a man that Vitor Belfort is. I wouldn’t f**king p*** on him if he was on fire.”
It is not uncommon knowledge that Bisping still holds resentment against Belfort. The Brazilian knocked out Bisping in January of 2013 when he was actively taking TRT, which was later considered a banned substance. Additionally, Belfort’s has a history of failing drug tests and is somewhat of a controversial figure in the sport as a result. Bisping could not hide his disbelief when he learned of Belfort choosing Punk as a potential opponent, however:
“If you put me in this environment and you tell me that former light heavyweight champion – former heavyweight champion – middleweight contender, longtime steroid abuser, cheat, fraud, wants to fight a one and fighter in the UFC that lost in the worst way possible, who is a 170 [pound] guy that’s never really done any kind of MMA training, you tell me that’s who Vitor wants to fight, of course you’re gonna get a strong reaction.”
CM Punk is yet to agree to fight.
