Vítor BelfortBy Marcelo Alonso“I have a big wish of fighting against Quinton Jackson, I think it would be a great fight”
Champion of Cage Rage, on 22th of september, winner of the big belt of the medium-heavy weight after defeating James Zikic on the judge´s decision, Vitor Belfort gave a special interview to TATAME talking about the fight, the expectation in being invited for more events and a possible renovation. The complete interview you find below.
How have you broke your hand?
I broke my hand on the beggining of the year when I was training with a sparring. I was taking care of the injury, but then it became ossified. After that I fighted against an italian and broke on the same place, but this time only one half was consolidated the other was cracked. Before the combat, I went to Leonardo Metsavat and he told me that he would make a simple surgery to rub out the bone and consolidate everything. I had to fight on this event now, so I decided to fight with this injury, nobody knew about this, only Rogerão, Distak and my wife. I didn´t want anybody to comment that I fighted with a broken hand. I couldn´t use properly my left hand, so I chose a different strategy to submit the opponent and I used my elbow on his face. On the second round he gave me a good kick, but I recovered myself very fast, knocked him down and mounted. It was great. Now I´m going to do this surgery to stay 100% prepared for the next fight.
What are your plans for the future? People are asking for you in UFC...
I want to start everything from the beggining and win the most big belts that I can. I´ll give the maximum attention to my career and fight against the best athletes. I have this big wish of fighting against Quinton Jackson, I think it would be a great combat. EliteXC that´s buying all the events, made a proposal for me to go to a lower category to face Robbie Lawler and fight for the big belt. Me and Spike, we are taking a careful look at this proposal of lowering my weight, getting this belt from Robbie Lawler or the big belt of the medium weight in Ultimate and then winning the superheavy belt. I want to fight in all events I can, but this I´ll decide after taking a look at all the proposals I´ve got. I still have a fight in Cage Rage. I liked this guy, Gary Shaw (president of EliteXC). We´re studying a proposal of making a great event here in . I want to be where people recognize my value. I have a history in Vale Tudo and I still have some objectives in my career. My coaches Rogerão, Daniel, Distak and Babu will help me to continue my training sessions in Black House. I´m gonna train really hard. I´ll also train with Paulão and we are gonna do a great job together.
So you have plans of going to UFC and winning Quinton Jackson´s big belt too?
That´s right. Then I´ll go to the superheavy category, this is my aim. Now I´m with Cage Rage´s belt and want more. Pro Elite that bought Cage Rage is doing an interesting thing, that is getting all the big belts and making the athletes fight for a world belt of the category. I received a proposal and I´ll try to win the big belt of the 83kg category in this event. I want to take part in the events where people want to watch me fighting and the ones who will give me the chance of achieving my aims.
And the injury on your hand, how are you going to take care of it?
I´m going to make this surgery this week, then I´ll rest for two weeks and do physioteraphy. I expect everything to be fine in one month. I wished everything was solved in another way but it will have to be like this. Well, the good thing is that I won a fight with a broken hand, fortunately my strategy was right. I would like to thank my sponsors, my fans all around the world, the people that give me all the support, my wife, my son, my parents, my friends, my coaches, and everybody in Black House, specially Tiagão (Baggio), that helped me a lot and has a great future in MMA. That´s it. I´m back and brought another big belt to .
So you consider Tiago Baggio as the new talent of MMA…
He´s a very tough kid and won this last event in Castelo (Gladiator Combat). It´s the sparring that is doing the most traning sessions with me and it´s always giving me all the support.
