Vitor Belfort released a heart-wrenching letter to his long-missing sister earlier this week, and contained within it the veteran fighter reveals that his UFC career is about to draw to a close.
Belfort writes that his next fight against Uriah Hall at UFC Fight Night 124 in Canada will be his last, bringing an end to a 21-year career, while he also notes that he will then move on to focusing on a new series of branded gyms alongside his wife.
‘The Phenom’s’ sister, Priscilla Belfort vanished in Brazil back in 2004 amid talk that she had fallen victim to a kidnapper who had been looking for ransom money.
Tragically, she was never seen again and it’s long been suspected that she was murdered, although her body has never been found and several arrests in connection with her disappearance have failed to bring a conviction.
Belfort penned the open letter to his sister on what would have been her 43rd birthday, and you can read it in full below.
“Exactly 43 years ago, a princess was born. Her name was already pronounced sweet. Priscila Vieira Belfort was born. Pri, wherever you are I really want this message to come to you. I hope in God’s Eternity of all creation. You can have access to love messages. In fact, our father had already said that love is greater than everything.”
“And it is with this love that I come to congratulate you on your birthday. I promise that somehow I will celebrate this day as if you were by my side. Pri, my kids always ask about you! They want to know every detail of your life: @davibelfort @vitoriabelfortoficial and @kyarabelfort it is logical that you could not forget your great friend @joanapradob who turned out to be your confidant”
“Well, we love you very, very much. And Pri, I just spoke to Mom and she promised that on this big day she will celebrate her birthday without staying at home. She told me she’s going out and walking with a friend. Daddy, you know what he’s like? LOL. It’s still the same.”
Especially on this day, we all wanted to be able to hug you and kiss you. I forgot to say; dad returned to live in Belo Horizonte with our family. He is being very well taken care of, there. All cousins and aunts love you very much and say that they miss you a lot. All of our cousins have already become parents with beautiful children! You cannot imagine every beautiful nephews and nieces we have.”
“Well I write this letter directly from Montreal in Canada, on January 14th I will do my last UFC fight. Pri, I have been fighting for 21 years and I confess that I can not wait to follow up on my second journey. In which all who participate will be winners.”
“Myself and @joanapradob created @belfortfitnesslifestyle a new model of gyms and next year we started opening for franchises. We are very happy with the result. We have a huge list of interested people and our students have become a great family. I’m sure you would love our students, each with a wonderful story.”
“Pri, right now I had to wipe away many tears from my face when I wrote this letter but I know that every tear is translated by God. Because only He understands that language. I Love you, my sister.”
