Vitor Belfort has fired criticism at Floyd Mayweather by praising Oscar De La Hoya for fighting a 'real fighter unlike Mayweather'.
The former UFC light-heavyweight will face former legendary fighter De La Hoya in the main event of “Triller Fight Club: Legends II” on Sept. 11 at Staples Center in Los Angeles, in a bout that has now been classified as a professional contest.
And the knockout artist delivered glowing praise for the former Olympic champion, firing a dig at Mayweather for 'looking for a 'YouTuber'.
"Oscar is fighting a real fighter,” Belfort told MMA Junkie.
“(He’s) not like Mayweather looking for a YouTuber who has one loss and zero wins.
He’s fighting with the guy who holds the most knockouts in UFC history until today.
“He won gold medals, and I could not achieve that because this is one of the greatest things – to become an Olympian.
"He is no doubt the best boxer of all time, and for me to be able to compete against him and be able to go toe-to-toe with the best boxer, it’s a dream come true, no doubt about it."
De La Hoya will return to the ring for the first time since his final contest against Filipino legend Manny Pacquiao back in 2008, where he was dominated and stopped in a resounding eighth round defeat in the MGM Grand, Las Vegas.
And there are many that expect Belfort to be an extremely tough challenge for the former six-weight world champion, with his style entirely focussed on trading in big exchanges with natural power and precision.
But the Brazilian believes it is 'joy' to fight in the pocket with the legendary competitor despite DeLa Hoya previously labelling the potential toe-to-toe exchanges 'hell'.
“He explains that so I don’t see as hell, I don’t like hell, hell is a place of negativity, I see a joy," Belfort continued.
"For me, staying in the pocket is joyful, I was in the pocket with a lot of sparring partners fighting.
"I’m looking for war and I’m excited for it.
I’m looking at this as a heavenly place for me to stay in the pocket with Oscar.
"If you don’t have joy in what you do, what you do is a burden."
His opponent De La Hoya spoke confidently during the first face-off between the pair stating that he will 'beat the s*** out of him' (Belfort) in their bout.
The Mexican has also doubled down on his previous claims, remaining confident that he could defeat pound-for-pound king Canelo Alvarez in any future contest.
De la Hoya has had a turbulent career to date, descending recently into substance abuse with most recently having to issue an apology for drinking ahead of doing commentating duty on a Jake Paul event,
Another former world-champion Riddick Bowe has also announced his return to the boxing ring in a celebrity boxing match, at the age of 54 taking on basketball player Lamar Odom later this year.
Boxing action was set to place this weekend, but has been severely dampened by the withdrawal of British fighter Conor Benn from his welterweight clash with Adrien Granados after he tested positive for Covid-19.
