More than four years since his most recent appearance inside the
cage,
Vitor
Belfort’s name still resonates with much of the mixed martial
arts world.
Belfort burst on the scene with the
Ultimate Fighting Championship in 1996—he was just 19 years old
at the time—and rolled through four consecutive opponents in 77
seconds or less, winning the UFC 12 heavyweight tournament in the
process. Hype soon cooled around the Brazilian and his
lightning-quick hands, as he often fell short of the great
expectations that had been before him. Belfort experienced his
share of success, including a brief run as UFC light heavyweight
champion, but his inability to rise to the occasion more often than
not has left him to be viewed through a prism of
disappointment.
As Belfort plots his next move at the age of 45, a look at some of
the rivalries that have helped shape his career to this point:
In what was perhaps the greatest single performance of his career,
Belfort locked horns with the rising Brazilian star and future
Pride Fighting Championships middleweight titleholder at UFC
17.5 on Oct. 16, 1998 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It did not unfold as
Silva had hoped at Portuguesa Gymnasium. Belfort smashed “The Axe
Murderer” with a left cross during one of their first exchanges,
chased him across the cage and pinned him to the fence with
punches. Silva’s head resembled a speed bag, as “The Phenom”
brought it to a dramatic and decisive close just 44 seconds into
Round 1. Superstardom seemed inevitable, but Belfort took his
talents to Pride six months later and dropped a unanimous decision
to Japanese legend
Kazushi
Sakuraba, a maddening propensity for inconsistency beginning to
take shape.
Belfort made it to the mountaintop on Jan. 31, 2004, albeit in
anticlimactic fashion. “The Phenom” challenged Couture for the
light heavyweight title in the UFC 46 headliner at the Mandalay Bay
Events Center in Las Vegas, where he sought to avenge his technical
knockout loss to “The Natural” six years prior. Complicating
matters for Belfort was the fact that his sister had disappeared 22
days earlier, leaving his family in a state of despair and ruin. He
found refuge inside the cage. Less than a minute into their
rematch, Belfort uncorked a grazing punch that sliced open
Couture’s eyelid and left the three-time NCAA All-American wrestler
with a corneal abrasion. It prompted an immediate stoppage 49
seconds into the first round and made Belfort the fourth light
heavyweight champion in UFC history. They completed their trilogy
the following August, as Couture prompted a third-round doctor
stoppage against his rival at UFC 49.
When Belfort entered his clash with “The Demolition Man” in the
opening round of the middleweight grand prix at, he had never
before been submitted. That changed on April 23, 2005, when Overeem
dropped a guillotine on the Carlson Gracie-trained Brazilian
jiu-jitsu black belt in front of 45,423 fans at the Osaka Dome in
Osaka, Japan. He greeted Belfort with some high-octane knees,
executed a takedown from the clinch and battered him with
hammerfists and punches before exiting an armbar with a soccer
kick. Overeem later yielded a takedown to the Brazilian, and while
he drew a yellow card for passivity, he avoided meaningful damage
on the ground. They were restarted on the feet after another
Overeem takedown in the waning moments. The Dutch kickboxer then
lit up Belfort with a driving knee and uppercut, forcing him to
retreat to the canvas. Soon after, he locked up a guillotine as
“The Phenom” attempted to scramble to a more advantageous position,
wrapped him in guard and forced the tapout 9:36 into Round 1 of
their Pride Total Elimination 2005 pairing. Overeem went on to
defeat Belfort by unanimous decision in their June 2006 rematch
under the
Strikeforce
banner.
It felt as if the MMA world’s collective jaw hit the floor all at
once when “The Spider” retained his middleweight crown in
spectacular fashion and knocked out Belfort with a front kick to
the face in the UFC 126 main event on Feb. 5, 2011 at the Mandalay
Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. Two punches on the crumpled Belfort
polished off “The Phenom” 3:25 into Round 1. A lengthy feeling-out
process between the two middleweights ended with a pair of leg
kicks and a right-left combination from Belfort. It was but a small
victory for the former light heavyweight king. With the two men
standing face to face, Silva fired the front kick up through his
defenses and dropped him where he stood. Belfort looked like he had
been cut down by a sniper. Silva delivered a right and a left as he
passed his compromised counterpart’s guard and drew the curtain in
cold-blooded fashion.
Belfort dispatched the former two-division Pride Fighting
Championships titleholder with a left head kick and follow-up
punches in the UFC Fight Night 77 headliner on Nov. 7, 2015 at
Geraldo Jose de Almeida State Gymnasium in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Referee Mario Yamasaki swooped in to save Henderson from further
damage 2:07 into Round 1. The two legends circled one another for
roughly 90 seconds, with Henderson landing a few inside leg kicks
and Belfort biding his time. “The Phenom” picked his spot
perfectly, sent a scorching kick crashing into Henderson’s face,
swarmed with punches and drove his dazed rival to the mat. More
punches followed, and Yamasaki intervened. So ended their
memorable, action-packed trilogy. Henderson had taken a unanimous
decision from the Brazilian in their initial encounter at Pride 32
in 2006, then ceded ground to Belfort when he bowed to a
first-round head kick just 77 seconds into their November 2013
rematch at UFC Fight Night 32.