Former UFC light heavyweight champion Vitor Belfort has accepted an offer to fight current titleholder Jon Jones on Sept. 22 in Toronto.
The news ends what had been an embarrassing situation to the sport. Jones had originally been slated to fight Dan Henderson at UFC 151 in Las Vegas, only for Henderson to pull out with a knee injury.
Former middleweight top contender Chael Sonnen volunteered to take his place on the card, but Jones balked at fighting the southpaw on just eight days’ notice. It is believed to be the first time a UFC fighter has ever turned down a bout.
As a result, embarrassed UFC officials were forced to cancel Thursday’s card. Belfort was UFC’s third option after 205-pound champions Lyoto Machida and Mauricio Rua both turned down the chance to face Jones with about a month before the fight.
“Yes, Machida and ‘Shogun’ passed,” Zuffa LLC chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta told ESPN. “Thank God for old-school real fighters.”
Jones has already previously beaten both Machida and Rua.
Belfort (21-9) had been slated to fight Alan Belcher on Oct. 13 at UFC 153 in Rio de Janeiro.
He claimed the UFC light heavyweight title on January 31, 2004 with a first-round TKO of Randy Couture. Belfort would relinquish the title later when Couture evened the score with a third-round TKO.
Jones (16-1) won the title on March 19, 2011 with a third-round TKO of Rua and subdued Machida in the second round of their fight in Toronto in December of that year.
Jones recently told ESPN that he didn’t want to fight Machida in a rematch because of low-pay-view numbers from their previous fight that made it obvious that the public was not interested.
“I don’t want to fight Lyoto Machida,” Jones said. “He was my lowest pay-for-view draw of last year. No one wants to see me to fight Lyoto Machida. I don’t want to fight Lyoto again. Lyoto is high-risk and low-reward.”
