Belfort to have final fight vs. Marquardt
Brazil’s Combate reports that the opponent has been named and it’s Nate Marquardt.
Vitor Belfort began fighting professionally on October 11, 1996. In 2004 he won the UFC light heavyweight championship. Aided by genetics, hard work, and performance enhancing drugs, both legal and not, Belfort fought on and on and on.
In 2013 he had one of the great runs in the sport’s history, beating Michael Bisping, Luke Rockhold, and Dan Henderson, all by head kick KO. Then the use of legal TRT was effectively ended in MMA; Belfort has gone 1-4 since. At 40, he plans one more fight and then an extraordinarily deserved retirement.
Likely with tongue in cheek Belfort mentioned CM Punk as a possible final opponent. Then Anderson Silva was mentioned, but The Spider shot that one down as, “Not making any sense.” That the greatest and worst UFC fighter ever were mentioned as opponents illustrates both the majesty and the eccentricity of The Phenom.
Now Brazil’s Combate reports that the opponent has been named and it’s Nate Marquardt. The news was confirmed by Ariel Helwani. The agreement is verbal; contracts have not been signed.
Marquardt, 38, is 2-2 his last four, and is coming off a decision loss to Sam Alvey in January. Prior to that he had a performance bonus winning kick KO over Tamdan McCrory at UFC Fight Night 96 on October 1, 1996.
Belfort is determined that his final fight be at UFC 212 on June 3 at Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Featherweight champion Jose Aldo and interim champ Max Holloway fight in a unification bout in the main event.