Vitor Belfort has once again criticized the title shot that the UFC has given to Lyoto Machida at UFC 175. After being replaced by “The Dragon” because of the TRT ban by the NSAC, “The Phenom” wanted to take his title challenger spot back immediately on the July 5th show but that request was denied. He has accepted that, but told Sportv that Ronaldo Souza should have been scheduled to fight the champion Chris Weidman in his place instead of Machida.
It makes no sense he (Lyoto) is being touted to fight for the belt, but it would make sense if was Jacare. If there is a ranking system, this ranking should be respected. It is like what Jon Jones said, the rankings don’t mean anything. We have to accept their decision but as I said before, whoever has the belt is my next opponent.
Machida was behind Belfort and Souza at UFC official middleweight rankings when “The Phenom” was dropped from UFC 173.
The title fight between “The Dragon” and Weidman was delayed because of an injury from the champion and will happen at UFC 175 on July 5.