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Vitor Belfort stormed onto the MMA scene as a young phenom in 1996, conquering the UFC's heavyweight tournament and shocking the Brazilian mixed martial arts landscape with his blitzing KO of Pride icon, Wanderlei Silva in 1998. Belfort then went on to claim the UFC light-heavyweight title from Randy Couture at UFC 46 and has earned his place to be named among the sport's legends.
Despite already being recognized as an MMA legend, the 38-year-old is still adding feathers to his cap and will look to become just the third fighter in history to win a title in more than one weight class this weekend- a feat only accomplished by greats like Randy Couture and B.J. Penn.
The phenom is known for blitzing opponents with his lightening fast punching flurries but has recently added some new elements to his game by implementing high kick attacks to his already vast repertoire.
The title fight against the current UFC champion Chris Weidman at UFC 187 this week is almost one and a half year in the making and is filled with lots of drama and controversies. Finally, Belfort is getting his shot he rightly deserved so let us look into the key fight that lead to Vitor’s fifth championship fight in his road to a title shot :-
Vitor Belfort vs Michael Bisping
After coming of a loss by the hands of P4P greatest fighter on the planet Jon jones for LHW title, not many gave Belfort any respect in this matchup against England’s Michel Bisping, as he was once again deemed underdog in this fight by the odd makers.
Since there were not many legitimate title challengers left in the UFC MW division at that time this bout was mainly announced to make Bisping look good & finally get a win against a named opponent to get a title shot, but apparently Vitor was in mood to ruin Bisping’s party that night.
Early on in the fight Belfort let Bisping be the aggressor, sitting back cautiously and circling on the outside while "The Count" put pressure on him moving forward with jabs, leg kicks and the occasional right hand. When Belfort finally started to go on the offensive, he threw some heavy body kicks and some power punches up high, although Bisping was able to avoid all of the significant blows.
Near the end of the first round, Belfort's hard work finally paid off as the body kicks he'd thrown put Bisping's guard down and instead of to the body, he threw a solid left high kick to the head which clipped Bisping, although the finish didn’t materialised with a late round flurry of punches.
Despite having just been hit by the high kick at the end of the first round, Bisping didn't adjust his defense and Belfort threw another left high kick and this one caught "The Count" flush, sending him crashing to the canvas, in the second. Belfort pounced with heavy punches and the fetal fighter could no longer intelligently defend himself & the fight was stopped.
The way Belfort disposed off Bisping proved he was there to stay & make one more run towards the title shot with accumulating similar spectacular performances inside the octagon.
Vitor Belfort vs Luke Rockhold
Despite coming on with a dominant win over Bisping, Vitor was once again an underdog against the last Strikeforce MW champion Luke Rockhold who was making his UFC debut. Odds were stacked against Vitor as he was facing a younger, faster & longer fighter in Luke Rockhold. This fight was straight away stipulated with title implication thus making it a must win for both of them.
After they touched gloves, they both started out circling, immediately Vitor attempted a wheel kick but misses. Luke shoots for a takedown and gets stuffed. Vitor moved forward and gets in a couple shots until he pushes Rockhold to the cage.
Then both get decent offence against each other without doing any substantial damage until Vitor cached Rockhold with a picture perfect wheel kick in the face that lands flush which he never saw Coming and it dropped Rockhold.
Vitor followed up the kick with ground and pound and ends the fight quickly and made it two in a row with head kick knockouts. Vitor made a huge statement finishing Rockhold like that in the first round & made everyone notice that he is coming for the belt.
Vitor Belfort vs Dan Henderson 2
In this rematch Vitor not only was motivated to take revenge of his loss in their first encounter but he was also motivated to establish himself as true no. 1 contender as well for the 185-pound title, despite this fight took place at 205-pound weight class. Finally, Vitor received the respect of odds maker that he rightly deserved, as he was the favorite coming into this rematch against his fellow legendary fighter.
There were no strikes a minute into the fight as both fighters were feeling out each other’s power and movement, but as soon as Hendo swarms towards Belfort and gets dropped by a left hook. Belfort pursued with an onslaught of ground-and-pound, but Hendo somehow survived the attack and looked to find his footing against the cage before being struck with a fight-ending head kick.
This was first time Dan Henderson was stopped due to strikes in his long illustrious career and one more feather was added in the cap of Vitor Belfort as he entered the record books with three head kick knockouts. Vitor once again made a statement and cleared all doubts that he is the next title challenger for the UFC MW championship belt.
