Weidman to Meet Machida at UFC 173, Now that Belfort’s Out
Shortly after announcing his withdrawal from the bout, Belfort issued the following statement on FOX Sports Live:
“The Nevada State Athletic Commission recently altered its policy and no longer will permit testosterone use exemptions and will not permit a TRT program. As other jurisdictions may follow suit, I am going to drop my TRT program and compete in MMA without it. Given the time constraints involved between now and my proposed next bout in May, I have determined not to apply for a license to fight in Nevada at this time.”
Getting the shot in Belfort’s place is former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, Lyoto Machida (PeekYou profile here), who dropped 20 pounds as of last October, in order to be able to fight in the middleweight class.
Bleacher Report goes into it all here.
As a bonus, we’ll seize upon the opportunity provided by this news to offer you a look at those MMA fighters – both active and retired – who are most prominent, written of, followed, active, and influential here in cyberspace (including the three fighters named above); pitting them against each other not in the hexagon, but instead on one of our PeekScore lists.
| Rank | Picture | Name | Served | PeekScore |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
Georges St-Pierre | Former UFC Welterweight Champion. | 9.61 / 10.00 |
| 2 |  |
Anderson Silva | Silva is the former UFC Middleweight Champion. | 8.80 / 10.00 |
| 3 |  |
Chuck Liddell | Now retired, UFC Hall of Famer, appeared last year on Dancing with the Stars. | 8.50 / 10.00 |
| 4 |  |
Randy Couture | Three-time former UFC Heavyweight, and two-time former UFC Light-Heavyweight champion. | 8.38 / 10.00 |
| 5 |  |
Vitor Belfort | Vitor is a former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. | 8.30 / 10.00 |
| 6 |  |
Jon Bones Jones | Jon Bones Jones is the current UFC Light-Heavyweight Champion. | 8.21 / 10.00 |
| 7 |  |
Tito Ortiz | Along with Couture and Liddell, Ortiz is one of the sport’s earliest stars. A former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, he is now the CEO of the Punishment Athletics MMA equipment and clothing line. | 8.20 / 10.00 |
| 8 |  |
Junior dos Santos | Junior is currently ranked the number two heavyweight in the world. | 8.19 / 10.00 |
| 9 |  |
Chael Sonnen | Sonnen was an NCAA Division I All-American wrestler at the University of Oregon, and a silver medalist at the 2000 Greco-Roman World University Championships. | 8.18 / 10.00 |
| 10 |  |
BJ Penn | Penn was the first non-Brazilian winner of the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship in the black-belt category, as well as a former UFC Lightweight Champion and UFC Welterweight Champion. | 8.15 / 10.00 |
| 11 |  |
Forrest Griffin | Forrest is a former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. | 8.14 / 10.00 |
| 12 |  |
Chris Weidman | Chris is the current UFC Middleweight Champion. | 8.13 / 10.00 |
| 13 |  |
Jason Miller | The flamboyant “Mayhem” Miller is the host of MTV’s Bully Beatdown. | 8.11 / 10.00 |
| 14 |  |
Cain Velasquez | Currently the number one ranked heavyweight. | 8.08 / 10.00 |
| 15 |  |
Wanderlei Silva | Silva is the former IVC Light heavyweight Champion, former PRIDE Middleweight Champion, and the 2003 PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix Tournament Winner. | 8.06 / 10.00 |
| 16 |  |
Rashad Evans | Evans was the heavyweight winner of The Ultimate Fighter 2. | 8.06 / 10.00 |
| 17 |  |
Quinton Jackson | Rampage Jackson is a former UFC Light-Heavyweight title holder, and one of the stars of that A-Team movie which came out a year, or so, ago. | 8.05 / 10.00 |
| 18 |  |
Roy Nelson | The winner of Season 10 of Spike TV’s The Ultimate Fighter, Nelson was also the last International Fight League Heavyweight Champion. | 8.04 / 10.00 |
| 19 |  |
Rich Franklin | Franklin is the former UFC Middleweight Champion. | 8.03 / 10.00 |
| 20 |  |
Lyoto Machida | Maia currently fights as a welterweight for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. | 8.01 / 10.00 |
| 21 |  |
Demian Maia | Maia currently fights as a welterweight for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. | 7.99 / 10.00 |
| 22 |  |
Rodrigo Nogueira | Former Lineal Mixed Martial Arts Champions | 7.93 / 10.00 |
| 23 |  |
Frankie Edgar | Edgar has never been finished in MMA competition. | 7.92 / 10.00 |
| 24 |  |
Mauricio Rua | Rua is a former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. | 7.81 / 10.00 |
| 25 |  |
Urijah Faber | Faber is the former WEC featherweight champion. | 7.65 / 10.00 |