Belfort discusses retirement plans

Vitor Belfort turns 40 in April and has been fighting professionally for over 20 years. He lost via KO to Kelvin Gastelum in the main event of UFC Fight Night 106 on Saturday night. At the post-fight press conference, he said that he had made the decision on his retirement prior to the fight.

Belfort has one fight left on his UFC contract, and he wants it to be at UFC 212 on June 3, 2017, in his home city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. And then he is done fighting.

I was confident I was going to knock [Gastelum] out, [but] everything happened in reverse, said Belfort, as transcribed by Ken Pishna for MMA Weekly. But that’s it. We have to reinvent ourselves. It won’t be the first, it won’t be the last.

I hope it is the last, because in July, I want to do the last fight on my contract. I think it’s my time to finish my chapter in this as a professional fighter.

I think that my body is not the same to train, a lot of pain. It’s over 14 surgeries that I’ve done. I think I’ve left everything inside the Octagon. It wasn’t in the best way. I’m sad not to give this win to my fans here in Brazil, but it’s part of it. The sport is this way. It was Kelvin’s night to shine.

The sole way Belfort sees himself fighting on is in a legends league within the UFC, with less brutal rules, shorter rounds, and a longer rest period.

Otherwise, I’ll go home and focus on my family, reinvent myself,” he said.