Vitor Belfort and Lyoto Machida have verbally agreed to fight at UFC 224 on May 12th in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
The bout will have extra significance since it is expected to be Belfort’s retirement fight. ‘The Phenom’ had previously planed to retire in January, but his final fight with Uriah Hall fell through on short notice.
After that, Belfort attempted to pursue one last fight with Michael Bisping at UFC Fight Night 127 in London instead, but since that hasn’t materialized he’s now turned his attention to a fight with fellow Brazilian star Machida.
The 40-year-old Belfort is coming off a unanimous decision victory over Nate Marquardt at UFC 212 in June of last year, but prior to that he had lost two fights in a row and it would have been three had it not been for a loss to Kelvin Gastelum being amended to a no-contest after his opponent tested positive for marijuana.
The 39-year-old Machida has had similar struggles as though he emerged with a split decision win over Eryk Anders last time out, he’d been finished in his previous three fights before that, including back-to-back KO losses against Yoel Romero and Derek Brunson.
Belfort Vs Machida is the most notable fight so far established for the UFC 224 event, which at this stage does not have a main event.
