Belfort: I would have KO’d Weidman if …

Vitor Belfort shone in the opening moments vs. Chris Weidman at UFC 187. However, Weidman weathered the attack and came back to completely shut down the Brazilian, and win it inside of three minutes.

In a recent interview at his gym with Brazil’s Combate, Belfort expressed regret that he did not pace himself, and believes the fight would have ended differently if he had.

“I spent too much energy there,” he said, as translated by Lucas Rezende for BE. “If I had taken a step back, waited a little bit, I’m sure I would have knocked him out. I should have made better use of my experience. He is very tough on the ground, it was his day.”

“I had both my shoulders on the ground, I couldn’t turn sideways. It’s easy to talk about mistakes in a fight. The other guy deserves his praise. It’s a part of life. He felt my strikes, he was afraid of exchanging with me. He wanted to take me down right away. I spent a year and a half waiting for this fight, it felt like the camp would never end. I felt like I overtrained about four different times.”

Belfort said he wants to spend some times with his family before making a return to the Octagon. One potential opponent, Gegard Mousasi, is already angling for a shot.