MMA Legacy 7.13.09: Vitor Belfort
Posted by Bill Wannop on 07.13.2009
Beginning the build to Affliction Trilogy, MMA Legacy will examine a man who may very have a meeting with Anderson Silva in his future, Vitor "The Phenom" Belfort! From his early run in the UFC with highlight reel knockouts of Wanderlei Silva and Tank Abbott, to struggling in PRIDE and finally reclaiming his dominance with a drop in weight at Affliction. Vitor Belfort has fought a who's who in MMA and Legacy takes us back to those match ups!
Each and every week MMA Legacy shines the spotlight on a MMA legend. The legends may be retired or may be still actively competing. The column will begin with a bio on the selected legend following his career throughout its highs and lows. With Afflictions big third even on the horizon, MMA Legacy will take a look at the career of one of the fighters whom is re-establishing his name in MMA, Vitor Belfort!
Early Years
Vitor Belfort was born April 1, 1977 (making him 32 years old today) in Rio de Janeiro Brazil. Since he was from Brazil he learned striking and studied Jui-Jitsu under Carlson Gracie. When he was 19 years of age he came to the United States in order to compete in mixed martial arts. His first official MMA fight took place in Hawaii and Vitor scored a knock-out victory in 12 seconds over Jon Hess on October 11, 1996.
Early UFC
Following the event Vitor received some interest form the UFC and agreed to take part a heavyweight tournament at UFC 12: Judgment Day on February 7, 1997. His first fight was against Tra Telligman. This fight lasted a little longer then his first but was ended in 1:17 by TKO due to a cut. In the finals of the tournament on the same night, Vitor faced off against Scott Ferrozzo where Vitor ended the fight just 0:43 seconds into the first round by TKO due to strikes. Vitor was declared the winner of the heavyweight tournament. Because of these short dominating victories, Vitor was given the nickname of the Phenom. After his victory UFC 6 runner up Tank Abbott would go on a rant about how Vitor's boxing is lackluster and that he was not overly impressed by anything he did.
Because of his great performance Vitor was placed into a super fight at UFC 13: The Ultimate Force against UFC 6 runner up Tank Abbott. The UFC really played up the bad blood due to Tank's recent comments. This fight was thought to be an all out slugfest, but was more one sided then people thought with Vitor knocking Tank down and pounding him into submission with his trademark lightening strikes.
This win would set up a huge matchup with Randy Couture. Both men had blown through the UFC competition at this point with Randy doing it with strategy and Vitor with pure power. They would meet at UFC 15: Collision Course, with the thinking being that Couture's game plan would be to take down Vitor and ground and pound a victory. However in the fight, Randy used his clinch in order to wear down Vitor with uppercuts before finally finishing him by TKO due to strikes.
Vitor would bounce back at the end of the year show at UFC Japan: Ultimate Japan. This time he would show his great ground skills by forcing former training partner Joe Charles to tap to an armbar without throwing a single punch. It would be a little under a year before Vitor would be back in the octagon. He returned at UFC Brazil: Ultimate Brazil where he faced fellow Brazilian up and comer Wanderlei Silva. In what is one of the greatest visuals that the UFC has, at the start of the contest, Vitor ran across the octagon and unloaded with a ton of lightning fast punches that knocked Silva down and out in just under 44 seconds.
PRIDE Following the annihilation of Wanderlei Silva Vitor went to fight for the PRIDE organization in Japan. His first fight took place on April 29, 1999 at PRIDE 5 against Kazushi Sakuraba. While Vitor controlled the first minutes of the fight, Sakuraba eventually got Vitor down and proceeded to stomp and kick his legs to earn a unanimous decision victory putting Vitor's record to 6-2.
Over the next two years in fights with PRIDE, Vitor would use his ground and pound style instead of his well known stand up and was able to earn decision victories against Gilbert Yvel and Daijro Matsui before submitting Bobby Southworth by rear naked choke and again gaining a controversial decision victory against Heath Herring.
UFC Return Vitor returned to the UFC in 2002 and was scheduled to face Tito Ortiz at UFC 33: Victory in Vegas, however an injury that Vitor suffered forced him to withdraw from the contest. Instead he made his return against Chuck Liddel at UFC 37.5: As Real as it Gets, with the winner earning at shot at then champion Tito Ortiz. In what was a great fight that had the crowd split on who to cheer for, the two engaged in a stand up war with Chuck landing the better shots. In the third Vitor got too aggressive and was knocked down by Chuck, with a look of disbelief on the face of Belfort over what had just happened. The fight went to the judges scorecards giving Liddel the unanimous decision victory.
The loss to Chuck seemed to motivate Vitor, and he went back to his old fight ways destroying Marvin Eastman at UFC 43: Meltdown by TKO in the first round, to earn a rematch with champion Randy Couture.
At UFC 46: Supernatural the highly anticipated rematch ended abruptly as Vitor missed a right hand and the stitching from his glove grazed Randy's eye causing a huge cut on his eye lid that went into his eye. The doctor was forced to stop the fight and give Vitor the victory and the title. The two would get a proper rematch at UFC 49: Unfinished Business, which again had some controversy. During the fight an accidental head butt by Couture opened up a huge cut on Vitor, which caused blood to pour out. Vitor continued the fight but Randy used his clinch work and ground and pound to open the cut up even more and between the third round the referee was forced to stop the fight and give the title back to Couture.
Following this fight another super fight was planned between Vitor and Tito Ortiz at UFC 51: Super Saturday. In what was another classic exciting fight, Vito rocked Ortiz with his striking and Ortiz used his elbows via his ground and pound. The fight was a back and forth war, and one of the best fights in UFC history. It would go to the judges' decision with them giving the nod to Ortiz by split decision to bring Vitor's MMA record to 12-5. This would be Vitor's last fight in the UFC.
Different Organizations Following the loss Vitor moved back to fight with the PRIDE organization out of Japan. His first fight was on April 23, 2005, against Alistair Overeem at PRIDE: Total Elimination 2005, in the opening round of the middleweight GP. In the fight Vitor seemed to have a lack of focus as he was taken down and beaten on his feet. Overeem eventually hit Belfort with a knee and right hand that put him down and after some resistance on the ground locked in a guillotine that forced Vitor to tap, giving him his third loss in a row.
After the loss Vitor would move to the Cage Rage organization and take part in Cage Rage 14: Punishment against Antony Rea. In the fight Rea was outclassed and Vitor constantly worked for submissions on the ground and pounded him on his feet finally finishing him in the second round by KO due to an uppercut.
Vitor would then get a rematch with Alistair Overeem at the second event of Strikeforce. This matchup was more competitive with Vitor having a better focus but Overeem got the better of him and won a unanimous decision victory.
A move back to PRIDE would get Vitor back to his winning ways where he took on Yoshiki Takahashi at < b>PRIDE: Critical Countdown Absolute. It took Vitor about 30 seconds to get the knock out victory. Vitor however would then drop a decision to Dan Henderson at PRIDE 32: The Real Deal.
Vitor would again travel to Cage Rage where he racked up two victories against Ivan Serati and James Zikic at Cage Rage 21 and 23. Following these fights he would sign to fight with Affliction and would drop weight classes to fight in the 185lb middleweight division.
Affliction
His first middleweight fight would be against Terry Martin at Affliction: Banned. In the fight Vitor hit Martin with a flying knee and with an uppercut straight left combination knocking out Martin in the second round. Vitro switched training camps for the fight, electing to train with Randy Couture at Xtreme Couture, where he still currently trains. At Afflictions second event, Affliction: Day of Reckoning Vitor faced off against Matt Lindland and would knock him out 37 seconds into the first round.
Vitor Belfort stormed onto the MMA scene in 1996 using his trademark lightening quick hands to earn quick dominating victories over his opponents. He however always seems to have difficulties against the top echelon fighters. His focus has also been questioned as when things don't seem to go his way he seems to lose his resolve. The move to middleweight as well as change in training camps seems to have helped Vitor regain that focus, and we have witnessed the return of the lightening strikes we were used to. He has an upcoming battle with Jorge Santiago at Afflcition Trilogy which is really his fight to lose
Future Outlook
The future for Vitor Belfort seems to be at middleweight and a possible move to the UFC to potentially take on Anderson Silva. Dana White recently stated that he would love to see that fight and have Vitor back. He must first get past Santiago at Affliction: Trilogy which he should do with no problems. However due to his inability to perform well against top tier opponents, a victory over Silva seems unlikely. There are many great matchups in the UFC (Henderson, Wanderlei Silva), so a move there would be a great thing for all fight fans.
Next week, moving closer towards Affliction: Trilogy we will go over the career of one of the men in the main event who needs no introduction, Fedor!
Each and every week MMA Legacy shines the spotlight on a MMA legend. The legends may be retired or may be still actively competing. The column will begin with a bio on the selected legend following his career throughout its highs and lows. With Afflictions big third even on the horizon, MMA Legacy will take a look at the career of one of the fighters whom is re-establishing his name in MMA, Vitor Belfort!
This win would set up a huge matchup with Randy Couture. Both men had blown through the UFC competition at this point with Randy doing it with strategy and Vitor with pure power. They would meet at UFC 15: Collision Course, with the thinking being that Couture's game plan would be to take down Vitor and ground and pound a victory. However in the fight, Randy used his clinch in order to wear down Vitor with uppercuts before finally finishing him by TKO due to strikes.
Following the annihilation of Wanderlei Silva Vitor went to fight for the PRIDE organization in Japan. His first fight took place on April 29, 1999 at PRIDE 5 against Kazushi Sakuraba. While Vitor controlled the first minutes of the fight, Sakuraba eventually got Vitor down and proceeded to stomp and kick his legs to earn a unanimous decision victory putting Vitor's record to 6-2. 
Vitor returned to the UFC in 2002 and was scheduled to face Tito Ortiz at UFC 33: Victory in Vegas, however an injury that Vitor suffered forced him to withdraw from the contest. Instead he made his return against Chuck Liddel at UFC 37.5: As Real as it Gets, with the winner earning at shot at then champion Tito Ortiz. In what was a great fight that had the crowd split on who to cheer for, the two engaged in a stand up war with Chuck landing the better shots. In the third Vitor got too aggressive and was knocked down by Chuck, with a look of disbelief on the face of Belfort over what had just happened. The fight went to the judges scorecards giving Liddel the unanimous decision victory.
At UFC 46: Supernatural the highly anticipated rematch ended abruptly as Vitor missed a right hand and the stitching from his glove grazed Randy's eye causing a huge cut on his eye lid that went into his eye. The doctor was forced to stop the fight and give Vitor the victory and the title. The two would get a proper rematch at UFC 49: Unfinished Business, which again had some controversy. During the fight an accidental head butt by Couture opened up a huge cut on Vitor, which caused blood to pour out. Vitor continued the fight but Randy used his clinch work and ground and pound to open the cut up even more and between the third round the referee was forced to stop the fight and give the title back to Couture.
Following the loss Vitor moved back to fight with the PRIDE organization out of Japan. His first fight was on April 23, 2005, against Alistair Overeem at PRIDE: Total Elimination 2005, in the opening round of the middleweight GP. In the fight Vitor seemed to have a lack of focus as he was taken down and beaten on his feet. Overeem eventually hit Belfort with a knee and right hand that put him down and after some resistance on the ground locked in a guillotine that forced Vitor to tap, giving him his third loss in a row.
