Vitor Belfort Willing To Take Lead On Legend's League
Vitor Belfort Willing To Take Lead On Legend's League
MMA pioneer Vitor Belfort says he's willing to help make the rules for a legend's league for older fighters.
For FloCombat via A.G Fight
Vitor Belfort no longer thinks about retirement.
With two more fights on his current contract, "The Phenom" is on deck at Saturday's UFC 212, the organization's fifth visit to Rio de Janeiro, where Belfort looks to stop his current winless streak against fellow veteran Nate Marquardt. And even with the importance of this next fight in the back of his mind, Belfort is still thinking ahead.
Not hiding his desire to continue working in the organization even after retiring from fighting, Belfort once again emphasized his business plans for whenever he hangs up the gloves for good. After all, according to his statements during a conversation with journalists at UFC 212's media day, Belfort plans on connecting his experiences as a fighter and as a businessman to improve the sport of MMA as a whole.
"Who does not change his mind, does not grow," Belfort said regarding the ongoing discussion about adapting the rules for professional MMA competition. "I have all the rules written down. I talked to several doctors. There are several adaptations. An example: I don't like elbows. This opens cuts. What sport still has that? Only MMA. I believe that in the future we will have many changes."
Such changes, of course, would generate controversy among the MMA community. However, changing the rules, in the athlete's view, would only make sense if fighters' opinions were to be heard beforehand, which did not happen when the current standards where set.
"Who makes the rules?" Belfort asked. "That should be the athletes. We compete in this sport. It's not any promoter. But the stars are the fighters, [so] they need to be included in the rule discussions. I have many ideas written down, I have to sit down and debate and see what is possible. It is all very simple. It is necessary that we can go and debate together. This is where I come in. Who creates the rules? There's no use creating something without knowing what it is. I'm not going to create a rule for surfing or football."
At 40 years of age and toward the end of an extensive career, Belfort recently suggested founding a Legend's League as a place for athletes who, like him, still dream of competing but aren't able to keep up with the new generation of the sport.
"I saw Matt Hughes and Chuck Liddell want to fight again," Belfort teased. "The important thing is safety. You have to create something to protect your health, adapt rules to have great fighting. When I believe in something... It was like women's MMA. Dana White was against it, but now he supports it. I know this organization very well, and they are thinking about expanding -- and fans [also] want it."
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Vitor Belfort no longer thinks about retirement.
With two more fights on his current contract, "The Phenom" is on deck at Saturday's UFC 212, the organization's fifth visit to Rio de Janeiro, where Belfort looks to stop his current winless streak against fellow veteran Nate Marquardt. And even with the importance of this next fight in the back of his mind, Belfort is still thinking ahead.
Not hiding his desire to continue working in the organization even after retiring from fighting, Belfort once again emphasized his business plans for whenever he hangs up the gloves for good. After all, according to his statements during a conversation with journalists at UFC 212's media day, Belfort plans on connecting his experiences as a fighter and as a businessman to improve the sport of MMA as a whole.
"Who does not change his mind, does not grow," Belfort said regarding the ongoing discussion about adapting the rules for professional MMA competition. "I have all the rules written down. I talked to several doctors. There are several adaptations. An example: I don't like elbows. This opens cuts. What sport still has that? Only MMA. I believe that in the future we will have many changes."
Such changes, of course, would generate controversy among the MMA community. However, changing the rules, in the athlete's view, would only make sense if fighters' opinions were to be heard beforehand, which did not happen when the current standards where set.
"Who makes the rules?" Belfort asked. "That should be the athletes. We compete in this sport. It's not any promoter. But the stars are the fighters, [so] they need to be included in the rule discussions. I have many ideas written down, I have to sit down and debate and see what is possible. It is all very simple. It is necessary that we can go and debate together. This is where I come in. Who creates the rules? There's no use creating something without knowing what it is. I'm not going to create a rule for surfing or football."
At 40 years of age and toward the end of an extensive career, Belfort recently suggested founding a Legend's League as a place for athletes who, like him, still dream of competing but aren't able to keep up with the new generation of the sport.
"I saw Matt Hughes and Chuck Liddell want to fight again," Belfort teased. "The important thing is safety. You have to create something to protect your health, adapt rules to have great fighting. When I believe in something... It was like women's MMA. Dana White was against it, but now he supports it. I know this organization very well, and they are thinking about expanding -- and fans [also] want it."
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