Fertitta Explains/Defends Reason Pulling Vitor Off UFC 173 Card

“At the end of the day, we have a fight to promote on May 24. Chris is going to defend his title, and you know how this business works: You’ve got to get commercials in two to three months early. We’ve got to get key art done. We’ve got a fight to promote and Vitor, because [NSAC] came down with this ruling, Vitor is going to have to comply with that, which he is going to. But we don’t know how long that process will take for him to get a license, whether it is two weeks or two months. We can’t be in limbo as a company. We need to promote a fight, so the most logical thing was for Vitor to get going with his process to file an application in Nevada, and once that gets done, we could revisit this thing. But we have a fight to promote on the 24th and we can’t sit around in limbo and wonder whether he’s going to be eligible to fight.”

In a recent statement to Yahoo Sport!, UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta, defended the company’s decision to pull Vitor Belfort from his UFC 173 title tilt against Chris Weidman.

Vitor will need 90 days to come off his TRT regiment and get into compliance with the trending ban on Testosterone Replacement Therapy.