Jon Jones sends message to retiring Vitor Belfort, offers to ”Run it back”

Following a difficult loss to Lyoto Machida at UFC 224, Vitor Belfort left his gloves inside the octagon for what is believed to be his last fight.  The loss was a difficult outcome for the storied UFC Champion and PRIDE veteran.  Belfort who grew up in the sport and became an icon of an athlete has received tremendous out pour from his fellow fighters.

In 2012 Vitor Belfort stepped up on short notice to battle Champion Jon Jones and while Bones eventually went on to defend the belt with a 4th round submission, the fight wasn’t without incident as Belfort secured an early armbar attempt in the fight which seriously placed Jones in danger.  The performance is obviously one that has stayed with Jones, as he went public with support of Belfort’s retirement with a post on Instagram.

“Enjoy your retirement brother, you deserve it,” Jones said in his message to Belfort. “Thank you for the magnificent fight, learned a lot about myself that night. Nothing but respect for you [Vitor Belfort]. PS, I know my arm would have been a nice little trophy for you, maybe we can run it back sometime in the future. Charity jujitsu match or something.”

Enjoy your retirement brother, you deserve it. Thank you for the magnificent fight, learned a lot about myself that night. Nothing but respect for you @VitorBelfort Ps I know my arm would have been a nice little trophy for you, maybe we can run it back sometime in the future. Charity jujitsu match or something

A post shared by Jon Bones Jones (@jonnybones) on May 14, 2018 at 7:04pm PDT