One can’t help but remember Vitor Belfort while the topic of Brazilian MMA comes into discussion. The Legend who the fans and MMA pundits alike saw him grow in the UFC's Octagon has bid 'goodbye' to his career and his fans.
Vitor Belfort shocked the world when he announced his retirement from the sport after a first round knockout loss to veteran Gegard Mousasi. The Phenom had an amazing career that spanned for exactly 20 years. The announcement came via an Instagram post:
Belfort was one of the pioneers of the sport and has been involved with the UFC since its inception and later till the company's evolution into the mainstream. He is probably the only UFC fighter who has been working under all three ownership regimes of the company.
Belfort defeated the MMA Legend Randy Couture to become the UFC Lightheavyweight champion and also won the Cage Rage Lightheavyweight Championship. The fighting instincts inside him were seen since the beginning of his career at the age of 19 when he had his second MMA fight in the old Octagon.
He has also won a bronze medal at the 2001 ADCC submission wrestling world championship.
According to Bjpenn.com, Belfort has an impressive resume consisting of wins over Luke Rockhold, Michael Bisping, Rich Franklin and Dan Henderson twice.
Belfort never shied away from hardcore battles and has fought Anderson Silva for the UFC Middleweight title when Silva was at the peak of his career. Also, he came close to beating Jon Jones via an armbar but fell short of victory eventually losing to the stronger American.
We saw the resurrection of The Phenom in 2013 when he dominated former UFC champion, Luke Rockhold, Michael Bisping and former double Pride Champion Dan Henderson. These three impressive wins within a year secured him the number one spot for Chris Weidman's UFC Middleweight Title, a match he ended up losing.
He returned the same year with and fought Henderson for the third time, thus ending the trilogy with head kick knockout over the former olympian.
Belfort will always be remembered for his achievements and courage inside the cage. His skill progression that he has shown as time passed by to adapt to younger and stronger fighters has been nothing short of amazing.
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