Vitor Belfort still has fights on his UFC deal after he meets Nate Marquardt

Vitor Belfort has talked about moving on from the UFC after his bout this weekend, but apparently his contract isn’t up yet.

Things are always complicated in the world of Vitor Belfort. The legend has always been a threat in the cage, but he has confounded people with contradictory statements and bizarre behavior throughout most of his career. The last few years have been no different, with his TRT saga and a few different battles with UFC president Dana White.

So when it comes to the idea of him possibly retiring, it should come as no surprise that the story has taken a few twists and turns.

When Belfort lost to Kelvin Gastelum at a Brazilian Fight Night event in March, he stated that he wanted to take one more fight in Rio at UFC 212, then walk away from the sport. He also wanted that fight to be against CM Punk at 205 pounds. Yeah.

After the fight was flipped to a No Contest due to Gastelum failing a marijuana test, Belfort’s stance softened a bit, and he said he’d leave the UFC after this fight but still wanted to compete elsewhere. Okay, that makes some sense - if your contract is up and you want to ply your trade elsewhere, you’re certainly entitled to that.

Too bad that’s not actually the case.

Today, Combate and MMA Fighting sources confirmed that Belfort actually has one more fight on his contract after his UFC 212 bout with Nate Marquardt. So unless he negotiates a release, he can’t just go fight elsewhere.

So what does Vitor say to that? Well, he was a guest on UFC Tonight, and he...says he wants to keep fighting in the UFC now.

I’m not even sure what to say now. All I know is that he’s fighting Marquardt on Saturday. After that, your guess is as good as mine.