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Vitor Belfort has no regrets about passing on UFC 184 replacement fight

Nacho Doce / REUTERS

Vitor Belfort was offered alternatives after Chris Weidman dropped out of their UFC 184 middleweight title fight, but none of them interested him or his team.

"The way I see it is from my lens - the lens of truth," Belfort said following the UFC's Welcome to the Show press conference. "When something goes wrong, it's not me that makes decisions. It's not my fault if the (fight) got canceled. It's not because I got an injury, it's because Chris Weidman got an injury. People think, 'Oh, Vitor is gonna step up.' But my trainer said, 'No, we're gonna wait.' They offered him one fight. It's business, it's dealing. In business, sometimes it doesn't go the way you think. It's nothing personal."

UFC president Dana White said Belfort turned down a fight for the UFC interim middleweight title against Lyoto Machida and was more interested in lower-ranked competition like Yoel Romero and Mark Munoz.

Instead, Belfort held out and will now face Weidman on a stacked UFC 187 card as the co-main event to a UFC light heavyweight title bout between Jon Jones and Anthony Johnson.

"I think the injury wasn't big enough, so the coaches, with my office, they decided let's wait for Chris," Belfort said. "(I've) been waiting for a year. This is a fight the fans want to see. And look at the card. The card is amazing."

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