“With myself being with ONE, and on the same network, I think it’s time for [AEW CEO] Tony Khan to give me Jericho, and I can whip Jericho’s butt. We can really make that fight happen,” 43-year-old Brazilian Belfort told SCMP MMA.

“I think this is what the audience wants, we can draw a lot of audience for AEW and ONE. It’s time to cross promote and bring these two together. ONE has a lot of top athletes, including myself, and we can make some big fights in both.

“It’s gonna be phenomenal. Think about me and Chris Jericho doing a ONE fight and going over there, imagine how many fans wanna see that – him making his debut in ONE, and me making my debut in AEW.”

The 50-year-old Canadian Jericho had a legendary career with American giants WWE, and is still going strong now in AEW, which has quickly forged itself as a legitimate competitor on the pro wrestling landscape – and former UFC light heavyweight champ Belfort sees lots of parallels between them.

“He’s ‘The Phenom’ in wrestling. He’s a very tough guy. He’s an animal,” Belfort said of Jericho. “I wanna do things that really will shake the market. I know I’m not a kid any more, but I wanna create legendary fights – me and Chris Jericho is a legendary thing. It’s a one in a lifetime.

“I’ve not yet talked to [ONE chairman] Chatri [Sityodtong]. I’m just thinking out loud. When you say AEW, I think of him [Jericho], so it’s time to make that collision with both phenoms of both sports, it will benefit both events.”

Belfort – who lives in Florida – appeared on an episode of the Jacksonville-based AEW’s Dynamite last summer as part of Mike Tyson’s entourage, when the boxing legend sparked an all-out brawl with Jericho’s own posse, The Inner Circle.

“When we went there, we brought the numbers [ratings] nobody did,” Belfort said. “It’s all about the content. I wanna provide the right content. Every time I talk to Chatri, he says, ‘Vitor, I wanna shake the world and I know we have the platform’, it’s just putting the pieces in the right places. We are about to do it and I’m excited.

“Tony Khan is a good friend,” he added. “We talk. He’s a great businessman with his family in sports, not just fighting, but also soccer and football. Mike Tyson is a good friend of mine. He was doing an appearance on AEW. It was a great idea by Rob [Hickman], the CEO of Tyson Ranch, saying ‘let’s put all you guys here and promote it, you guys have a big brawl and I think that’s gonna call attention’. It was pretty cool, it was chaos and I think we gotta continue that.”

Despite signing with ONE in 2019, Belfort is still yet to make his debut in the promotion. He was set for a “special rules” heavyweight bout against Hong Kong’s Alain “The Panther” Ngalani (4-6) last year before the coronavirus pandemic took hold, but is no longer interested in the match-up.

Nor is he too bothered about getting in there with ONE’s heavyweight newcomers like Senegal’s Oumar “Reug Reug” Kane (2-0), 13-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champ Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida, and Iranian former Greco-Roman wrestling star Amir Aliakbari (10-1).

“Not at the moment, man, especially with his [Ngalani’s] last loss [vs Kane in January],” Belfort said. “I wanna do some cool things that really will bring the viewership. I wanna bring what people wanna see. I really wanna add value for whatever I do, not just for me but for the organisation and the fans. That’s what makes big shows.

“I’m not looking to run for the title, unless they [ONE] do like a legend-to-legend title, that would interest me a lot. But we gotta see. Fights are economic of course. But for me, what’s gonna drive me to train to fight that guy, and make me go, ‘Wow, I really want that competition, that’s what I’m looking for’. I need to look for my ‘why?’ and make something people wanna see, that’s the priority.”