Belfort: Nothing in my system, God has blessed me, I’m ready
“I did all the tests that Nevada requires, did it on my own, and I passed them all. There is nothing in my system anymore. God has blessed me. I’m ready now, and I’m waiting.”
On Feb 7, the Nevada State Athletic Commissionadministered a surprise test to Vitor Belfort, at the 2013 World MMA Awards. The results of the test were received by the NSAC, by the UFC, and by Belfort, but no one has said to date what they showed.
Had Belfort applied for a license to fight, the NSAC would have been at liberty to disclose the results. But he had not yet applied when the test was administered, and thus the NSAC is legally prohibited from making the results public. Belfort himself could release the results of the test, but has not done so.
Belfort’s attorney, Neal Tabachnick told Yahoo Sports Kevin Iole that at the time of the test, Belfort was still on TRT under the care of a doctor.
Prior to the outright ban, the NSAC did not condone the use of TRT by a fighter prior to an application for a TUE, even if one had been granted by another AC.
Thus it is possible that Belfort was in violation of NSAC requirements even before he applied, therefore could not apply for the license, and thus withdrew from the fight with UFC middleweight champion Chris Wiedman that he had been advocating so hard for.
Belfort was replaced by Lyoto Machida vs. Weidman; the fight was originally schedule for UFC 173 in May. The fight was delayed due to injury and now takes place at UFC 175 in July.
Now Guilherme Cruz reports that Belfort is saying has passed every test and wants to fight Weidman for the title at UFC 175 in July, but expects to fight the winner later in the year.
“I did all the tests that Nevada requires,” said Belfort. “I did it on my own, and I passed them all. There is nothing in my system anymore. God has blessed me. I’m ready now, and I’m waiting.
“Since they canceled in May, there is nothing else to do. Give me what is mine.”
Belfort is not officially cleared by the NSAC yet, but he plans to meet with the commission soon to ask for a license.
“I’m doing it really soon,” he said. “The important is that I’m doing everything by the rules.”
Weidman vs. Machida is signed for UFC 175, so Belfort expects to fight the winner of this fight later in 2014, although he knows he might need to fight one more time before challenging the champion.
“Everything was an excuse to my opponents, and they won’t have it anymore,” he said. “It’s the opposite now, they will be at an advantage. (I used) TRT to be at their levels. They will lose now and won’t have any excuses.”