Greatness of the Phenom : Vitor Belfort

October 11th 1997 a baby faced kid knocked John Hess out in 12 seconds at SuperBrawl 2. It was his first MMA fight, and the beginning of a great career.

At UFC 12 , 19 year old Vitor Belfort is the youngest copetitor ever in the UFC, he is matched against the much older (32 I believe) Tra Telligman, the tough Lions Den Heavyweight. The best match up on paper in the Heavyweight tournament plays out in the first round and in just over a minute. Tra is chased and nailed with amazingly fast combinations, Tra recieves a horrible cut and the fight is stopped. A 19 year old has a win in the UFC.

Later that night in the Finals of the Heavyweight Bracket Vitor Belfort is facing Scott Ferrozzo, a UFC vet and tough fighter. Tank Abbott (who had lost to Ferrozzo at UFC 11) is commentating talking about how he wants to get his hands on Ferrozzo. While Tank is talking Vitor is beating the ever loving shit out of Ferrozzo. It is stopped in 43 seconds. Ferrozzo never fights again (going 4-2 bookended by Bohlander and Vitor) and an MMA legend named the Phenom is born.

At UFC 13 Vitor is matched against Tank Abbott in a Super Fight. It is supposed to settle how good Vitor's hands really are and if he can stand up to Tanks strikes. It isn't even close. Tank is getting tagged and is losing his balance falling around the octagon. 50 seconds into the fight Vitor tags Tank and it is over. Vitor is 4-0 and has not gon longer than 1:17 seconds in any fight.

At UFC 15 the Phenom is facing Randy Couture who had won the UFC 14 Heavyweight tournament. Vitor comes to the ring and 1 of his 3 listed strengths is "No Known Weaknesses" , Randy Couture proved that wrong. By clinching (at will) and roughing up Vitor for the better half of the first 8 minutes, Vitor looks flustered, confused, and unconfident for the first time in his MMA career. Randy gets Vitor on his back and begins nailing Vitor. Bob Goldthwaite (the old announcer) says well Vitor wants to be on the ground he pulled guard. 16 seconds later Big John is stopping the fight. Vitor Belfort has suffered his first defeat and Randy Couture has won his first of many big upsets.

2 months later at UFC 15.5 Vitor gets back on the winning track by arm barring the game Joe Charles. It is the end of 1997, Vitor is 5-1, has gone 4-1 in the year fighting men like Tra Telligman, Randy Couture, Scott Ferrozzo, and Tank Abbott.

10 Months go by and at UFC 17.5 (Ultimate Brazil) Vitor is facing Wanderlei Silva. Wanderlei comes out as always, going forward throwing punches. But something happens, Vitor gets backed into a corner and comes out firing on all cylinders, backing Wanderlei up and nailing him, he runs Wanderlei across the ring, drops him, and nails him for good measure. It is over in 44 seconds.

Vitor wont fight in the UFC until 4 years later.

Vitor faces Kazushi Sakuraba at Pride 5 and loses a Unanimous Decision. Kazushi borrowed from Randy and tied Vitor up in clinches and managed to stifle his amazing offense. Vitor is 6-2.

At Pride 9 Vitor beats Gilbert Yvel by decision, and some wondered if he had already lost his prime, at Pride 10 Vitor defeated Daijiro Matsui by decision as well. At Pride 13 Vitor submits Bobby Southworth in the first round setting up a show down with Heath Herring at Pride 14. In a very entertaining 15 minute 3 round fight, Vitor is the clear victor and gets the decision he deserves. Vitor is 10-2

At UFC 37.5 Vitor Belfort is facing Chuck Liddell, in a somewhat forgettable fight Vitor is outpointed all 3 rounds and drops a Unanimous Decision to the ice man.

UFC 43 see's Vitor facing Marvin "The Beastman" Eastman, a tough MMA vet, it isnt even close and Eastman is knocked out in just over a minute by a great knee and follow up punches.

This sets up a rematch at UFC 46 with Randy Couture. In one of the oddest title matches of all time. Vitor and Randy come out circling, feeling eah other out, finally 40 seconds in Vitor engages, it looks like he doesnt hit anything but Randy turns away and is clearly done. It looks like he never got punched.

Then in slow motion you can see what happened, either VItor's pinky or glove caught Randy on the eye and tore his cornea if I remember correctly. Vitor Belfort is the Light Heavyweight Champion of the World. His record is 12-3

UFC 49 is an immediate rematch that makes for a great fight. Remarkably Randy Couture isn't human, as we have learned, and he gruels Vitor for 3 hard rounds, winning all 3 of them IMO. After the 3rd round Vitor the fight is stopped and Randy is again the Champion. Vitor falls to 12-4 and 1-2 against Randy Couture.

UFC 51 Vitor is facing Tito Ortiz, in a very close match that came down to the last round Vitor could never find a way to avoid being on his back in this fight and loses a decision. Although it was close, Vitor definitely spent to much time on his back with Tito on top of him.

Vitor then goes back to Pride, for Pride Total Elimination. To put it simply, Vitor is eliminated by Alistair Overeem via guillotine at the 10 minute mark. This is the only 3 fight losing streak of Vitor Belfort's career and it came against Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz, and Alistair Overeem. Not bad at all.

At Pride TOtal CountDown Vitor knocks out Kazou Takahashi in just over 30 seconds. Then at Pride 32 Vitor drops a 15 minute decision to Dan Henderson. Henderson like Randy and Tito, used his wrestling to rough up and control Vitor. Vitor's record is 14-8.

Then it happens. Vitor finds a spark and takes conditioning seriously again, from 2007 to 2009 Vitor goes on a 5 fight win streak (the longest win streak of his career) by defeating Ivan Serati, James Zikic, Terry Martin, Matt Lindland, and Rich Franklin. Only Zikic went to decision.

As of know Vitor Belfort's record is 19-8, he has faced MMA greats like Randy Couture (3 times), Kazushi Sakuraba, Franklin, Wanderlei Silva, Dan Henderson,Chuck Liddell, and Tito Ortiz. Along wiht good fighters like Tra Telligman, Heath Herring, Tank Abbott, Scott Ferrozzo, Gilbert Yvel, Overeem, and Eastman.

13 of his 19 wins came by knockout.

figured I would do it before class

Impressive.

Didn't Vitor have alot issues about his sister going missing ?

honestly if there was ever a fighter that let outside the ring issues conflict with or derail their career, it was Vitor Belfort

honestly cant remember anymore just remmeber that guy had problems outside the cage and Im happy he has got himself together on time to make one final run, cause he really is/was a phenom

Dont know as much about Vitor as some other fighters so anyone that knows all about the outside the ring.cage stuff feel free to add it

glad ya enjoyed Ali I know its been long over due

Thanks. Vitor is 1 of my favorite fighters.

no prob guys hope i did him justice

I love it, but you forgot to break down the Tito fight. Otherwise as per usual job well done, Bird.

Ali_1748 wrote:

Impressive.

Didn't Vitor have alot issues about his sister going missing ?

for some reason I think heard that he blamed himself about his sister missing??? I could be wrong, but that made me think I did.

You forgot to mention that Vitor opened up the biggest, nastiest cut ever.

I think his fight with Anderson will look a lot like his fight with Overeem (2nd I think). He got rocked to the ground and was shortly after tapping.

redvexx8 wrote:

You forgot to mention that Vitor opened up the biggest, nastiest cut ever.

I think his fight with Anderson will look a lot like his fight with Overeem (2nd I think). He got rocked to the ground and was shortly after tapping.

not lying I almost mentioned it when writing the Eastman fight

my bad, it is true, great add

Tito fight had a close 2nd round that VItor probably won, a 1st that Tito won, and a 3rd that went to TIto if I remember right

alot like first Tito-Griffin fight only not as close

UFC 37.5 Vitor vs Liddell was basically thrown together in a couple weeks, Fox Sports paid to show a live UFC event on Best Damn Sports Show, Lidddell vs Belfort was main event

Best Damn ended up showing a Robbie Lawler fight if I remember right

I'll have to watch again but I thought Vitor won that Tito fight the first time I watched it. 2nd round was clearly Vitor, 3rd was clearly Tito and not much happened in the first round but I thought Belfort was a little more aggressive and did a little more

sounds right Bobbit, I just reemmber watching that live, and I HATED Tito more than anyone in the world at that time IMO and I thought he had won and I was pissed bout it