The Affliction 3 bout between Gegard Mousasi and Vitor Belfort was relatively close to being a done deal. Although Affliction had nearly confirmed the bout, the pair have been struggling on a weight class to fight at.
The Armenian-Iranian fighter has already given up the middleweight belt he won over at DREAM, the Japanese MMA promotion. Mousasi told media that he is not capable of fighting at 185 pounds anymore simply because he doesn’t feel as strong when cutting down so much weight. As for Belfort, he has stated that he is not willing to move up in weight for a fighter like Mousasi. Belfort doesn’t consider Mousasi as a good enough fighter to move up in weight for, so he’d prefer to pass on the offer.
Snip from Vitor Belfort:
“I don’t know anything, they are saying that, but there’s nothing right yet. I’m waiting the confirmation to see who we will fight…Now I have to see if he’ll get down to middleweight…Who defines this isn’t him. I fight at 185lbs. If they want to do this fight at 185lbs, it’s done, otherwise I see no option to go up, even because he isn’t a challenge, a man with much name. To go up, I don’t see him as a challenge. I want to fight with him in the weight he was champion (at Dream), then I think its worth.”
Snip from Gegard Mousasi:
“I cannot make the weight…Otherwise I would have continued to fight at 185 and not given up my DREAM middleweight title. I cannot make 185 anymore, and that is final…To be honest, I don’t really care…But for me, his comments are strange because his paycheck will be unchanged whether he fights a bigger name than me or not. It is also strange that he does not see me as a challenge when many rankings have me ranked higher than him at middleweight…If (Belfort) does not want to fight at middleweight, why not fight me at a catchweight?”
