Vitor Belfort asks for UFC St. Louis pay, Dana White says he turned down replacement fights

Vitor Belfort asked the UFC to pay him his fight purse for UFC St. Louis on social media Sunday night. Not so fast, says Dana White.

The UFC president said on the FS1 post-fight show that Belfort was offered a replacement fight for Sunday’s card after Uriah Hall dropped out and Belfort turned it down. White said that the UFC also found Belfort a bout at next week’s UFC 220, but he said no to that as well.

“This thing went down, we worked quickly and we got Vitor a fight,” White said. “He could have fought tonight, he chose not to. We got him a fight in Boston. He chose not to fight in Boston. He chose not to fight then. I don’t know who the opponents were, but they told him we got him two fights.”

Hall, who was supposed to be Belfort’s opponent in Belfort’s planned retirement bout, withdrew before he was able to weigh-in Saturday. MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani reported that Hall had a seizure as a result of a bad weight cut and he was hospitalized until Sunday evening.

White said he did not know the opponents offered Belfort, but the Brazilian legend apparently wants a fight with Michael Bisping in London on March 17. Bisping told Helwani on Sunday that he has no interest in fighting Belfort.

“When I get back to Vegas and get back in the office, I will obviously talk to Vitor, I’ll talk to Mike,” White said. “We’ll see what happens.”

In an Instagram post Sunday, Belfort asked the UFC to pay him for UFC St. Louis, because he did all the training and preparation and was able to weigh-in successfully. The fight not going down was not his fault.

”A message to the UFC now,” Belfort wrote, “I’m waiting for my paycheck. I did what I had to do – trained, was there on fight week, made weight. Where’s the respect?”

It’s still unclear when the former UFC light heavyweight champion will return for his last appearance inside the Octagon 22 years after his promotional debut.

”It’s hard to understand after all the dedication and sacrifice, preparing mentally to retire from a sport I basically helped create, and that simply doesn’t happen,” Belfort wrote. “I have mixed feelings about what happened.

”My retirement fight didn’t go as I planned, but in my heart I know that somehow down the line everything will make sense.”