Vitor Belfort acquired the 205-pound belt from James Zikic at Cage Rage 23-Unbelievable. Belfort looks to climb back up the MMA charts and become the #1 fighter in the world and just a reminder…he is a former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion with notable wins against Tank Abbott, Randy Couture, Wanderlei Silva and Heath Herring.
In a recent interview we found, Belfort was asked a few questions regarding his MMA career and his future plans. Some of his goals he discussed was going back to the UFC and taking away the Light Heavyweight belt from Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. According to Belfort, he also states that EliteXC wants him to go down to 185 and fight Robbie Lawler for his title.
At only 30 years of age, Belfort still has plenty of time to get to where he wants. Here is the complete interview (props to tatame.com):
How have you broke your hand?
I broke my hand on the beggining of the year when I was training with a
sparring. I was taking care of the injury, but then it became ossified. After
that I fighted against an italian and broke on the same place, but this time
only one half was consolidated the other was cracked. Before the combat, I went
to Leonardo Metsavat and he told me that he would make a simple surgery to rub
out the bone and consolidate everything. I had to fight on this event now, so I
decided to fight with this injury, nobody knew about this, only Rogerão, Distak
and my wife. I didn´t want anybody to comment that I fighted with a broken
hand. I couldn´t use properly my left hand, so I chose a different strategy to
submit the opponent and I used my elbow on his face. On the second round he
gave me a good kick, but I recovered myself very fast, knocked him down and
mounted. It was great. Now I´m going to do this surgery to stay 100% prepared
for the next fight.
What are your plans for the future? People are asking for you in UFC…
I want to start everything from the beggining and win the most big belts that I
can. I´ll give the maximum attention to my career and fight against the best
athletes. I have this big wish of fighting against Quinton Jackson, I think it
would be a great combat. EliteXC that´s buying all the events, made a proposal
for me to go to a lower category to face Robbie Lawler and fight for the big
belt. Me and Spike, we are taking a careful look at this proposal of lowering
my weight, getting this belt from Robbie Lawler or the big belt of the medium
weight in Ultimate and then winning the superheavy belt. I want to fight in all
events I can, but this I´ll decide after taking a look at all the proposals
I´ve got. I still have a fight in Cage Rage. I liked this guy, Gary Shaw
(president of EliteXC). We´re studying a proposal of making a great event here
in . I want to be where people recognize my value. I have a history in Vale
Tudo and I still have some objectives in my career. My coaches Rogerão, Daniel,
Distak and Babu will help me to continue my training sessions in Black House.
I´m gonna train really hard. I´ll also train with Paulão and we are gonna do a
great job together.
So you have plans of going to UFC and winning Quinton Jackson´s big
belt too?
That´s right. Then I´ll go to the superheavy category, this is my aim. Now I´m
with Cage Rage´s belt and want more. Pro Elite that bought Cage Rage is doing
an interesting thing, that is getting all the big belts and making the athletes
fight for a world belt of the category. I received a proposal and I´ll try to
win the big belt of the 83kg category in this event. I want to take part in the
events where people want to watch me fighting and the ones who will give me the
chance of achieving my aims.
And the injury on your hand, how are you going to take care of it?
I´m going to make this surgery this week, then I´ll rest for two weeks and do
physioteraphy. I expect everything to be fine in one month. I wished everything
was solved in another way but it will have to be like this. Well, the good
thing is that I won a fight with a broken hand, fortunately my strategy was
right. I would like to thank my sponsors, my fans all around the world, the
people that give me all the support, my wife, my son, my parents, my friends,
my coaches, and everybody in Black House, specially Tiagão (Baggio), that
helped me a lot and has a great future in MMA. That´s it. I´m back and brought
another big belt to .
So you consider Tiago Baggio as the new talent of MMA…
He´s a very tough kid and won this last event in Castelo (Gladiator Combat).
It´s the sparring that is doing the most traning sessions with me and it´s
always giving me all the support.
