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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Though UFC President Dana White said on Friday the organization is trying to put together a fight between Vitor Belfort and Tim Kennedy, Belfort's not keen on that matchup. Not at 185 lbs. anyway.
Belfort's manager and wife, Joana Prado, spoke with Brazilian outlet Globo and explained that Belfort isn't fighting Kennedy or anyone in a middleweight fight.
"It makes no sense Vitor, who is the number 1 ranking, [to] fight number 2, number 6, or number 10 [in the division]," Prado argued. "His next fight in the middleweight division will be against the winner of Chris Weidman vs. Anderson Silva. If the UFC wants him to fight in any other category above [that], we are available. [It can] be against anyone, Tim Kennedy, to Roy Nelson, but [it] has to be in the [light heavyweight division]. Even in [heavyweight] to fight him. Vitor wants to fight, but in his category only if [it's] the title fight."
Penick's Analysis: The matchup made no sense on the surface because of how much of a gap there is between where Belfort is ranked and where Kennedy is in the division, so this isn't surprising at all. He obviously feels a fight in another division won't have any effect on his spot as a contender in the middleweight division, so he's opening the door for the UFC to book him in a "keep busy" fight out of the 185 lb. field, but I don't know that they'll take him up on that. I suppose we'll have to see whether they'd let him hold out for a title fight and if they'll give him that fight in 2014, or if he'll keep himself busy with some type of matchup this fall or winter.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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