Undefeated UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman is set to defend his title at UFC 187 against interim champion Vitor Belfort, in a battle that was expected to happen multiple times already before being derailed by various injuries to both fighters. One of the storylines ahead of this bout is Belfort's history with performance enhancing drugs, and Weidman's outspokenness on said tests.
In February, Weidman had strong words for Belfort when he called him a "convicted juicehead." This was after Belfort turned down fights for the UFC's interim belt, and demanded that if he fought it be for the full title, even though Weidman had been out of action for less than a year.
"First of all, Vitor, he failed a drug test," Weidman said. "That's his second drug test that he failed. Usually he'd be out for at least a year, but I think they tested him when there was no bout agreement, so they couldn't really punish him the way they wanted to. He wasn't licensed. So the guy's lucky as anything that he's not in trouble.
"I mean, he's a two-time convicted juicehead at this point, and he's not realizing that. I understand that he hasn't fought in a long time, but that's his fault. I fought. I fought in July. That's six months ago, against Machida."
Now that their fight is happening in late May, Belfort has complained about being tested randomly seven times while Weidman's only been checked on once. Weidman weighed in on that again, but also defended Belfort's decision to pass on facing Lyoto Machida for an interim title.
"If he passed seven pre-fight tests, that's great. I hope there's seven more," Weidman said. "Especially with this Anderson Silva thing, there has been a lot of bad press on the sport, but we're just gonna allow it to grow now. Sometimes bad things need to happen for the sport to grow and I think, starting in July, the sport is really going to start changing."
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