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WILLIAMS: Anecdotes from Vitor Belfort's Fascinating, Tumultuous Career
Feb 2, 2011 - 3:00:08 PM WILLIAMS: Anecdotes from Vitor Belfort's Fascinating, Tumultuous Career

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By: Alex Williams, MMATorch Senior Contributor

This article was originally posted on September 18, 2009.


Here are some thoughts and observations on the lengthy, fascinating and tumultuous career of Vitor Belfort:

*Vitor’s first fight came against John Hess. Hess was a gigantic bully of a brawler who partially blinded Andy Anderson with eye gouges in both men’s sole UFC bout. Vitor finished him quickly and violently, with a torrent of punches that dribbled Hess’ head on the mat like a basketball.

*Vitor started his career under the name Victor Gracie. Carlson Gracie thought of Vitor like a son and wanted him to use the Gracie name. Vitor even fought his first fight as Victor Gracie before pressure from other members of the Gracie family caused Vitor to revert back to Belfort in time for his second fight (and UFC debut). For whatever reason, upon entering the UFC, “Victor” was shortened to "Vitor."

*It’s hard to overstate the hype Vitor generated after his UFC 12 tournament win and smashing victory over Tank Abbott at UFC 13. Similar to the predictions made after Mike Tyson knocked out Michael Spinks, pundits thought that the 19 year-old Belfort would dominate the sport for the next 15 years. The hand speed he displayed was rare for any 215 pound man in any combat sport. When his trainers said he could become world heavyweight champion in both MMA and boxing, many fans believed them. On top of this, as an amazed Jeff Blatnick commented after Vitor’s demolition of Tank, Vitor’s bread-and-butter was supposed to be his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, which he had not even used yet in the UFC. UFC match maker Art Davie went as far as to claim the two best jiu-jitsu artists in the world were Rickson Gracie and Vitor Belfort.

*Randy Couture’s win over Belfort at UFC 15 was, as play-by-play man Bruce Beck put it at the time, “a stunning upset.” With an inexperienced Couture being in his mid-30s, the conventional wisdom was that Belfort would slaughter him en route to a heavyweight title shot against champion Maurice Smith. Instead, Couture exposed huge holes in Belfort’s game. Couture demonstrated that, for all of Vitor’s hand speed, the Brazilian had little actual boxing skill. With just a few weeks of training in boxing from when he was in the United States Army, Couture was able to keep Vitor from cutting off the Octagon on him. Furthermore, Belfort’s amazing physique was revealed to be little more than smoke and mirrors. Many had been suspicious of Vitor’s mass since he entered the UFC, as he looked an estimated 30 pounds of muscle lighter just four months before his UFC debut when he took out Hess. Belfort’s gassing so badly against Couture seemed to confirm the worst fears about how his muscle had been gained.

*On the ground, Couture handled Belfort easily, but that may have just been a function of how tired Belfort was. Still, Art Davie’s statement that Belfort was one of the two best at jiu-jitsu in the world was even more outrageous back then than it would be today. In fact, quite a few jiu-jitsu players at the time questioned whether Belfort was an actual black belt at all. Rickson Gracie stated that when Belfort had last trained with him, he was a blue belt, but just six months later, under Carlson Gracie’s tutelage, he was promoted to black belt. While no one would doubt that Belfort is a legitimate black belt today, his jiu-jitsu was likely not at that level in 1997.

*UFC Japan saw Vitor’s first fight after his loss to Couture, but referring to it as a “fight” may be overly generous. Vitor refused to face anyone but “Ghetto Man” Joe Charles. Charles, a judo player, had fought in the UFC before, but was clearly a low-level foe. Why did Vitor want to return against him? It might have been because Charles was one of Belfort’s training partners. Vitor finished him quickly with an armbar. Fans can judge for themselves the authenticity of the bout.

*Vitor’s first post-Couture match against someone not in his training camp came against a then-unknown Wanderlei Silva. However, the fight almost didn’t happen. Literally minutes before the bout was to start, Vitor refused to come out of his locker room. He had pulled something similar against Couture, delaying the start of that match. This time, though, the final result was a good one for “The Phenom.” He blasted out Silva in 44 seconds.

*There was no shame in losing to a prime Kazushi Sakuraba. Even though Belfort outweighed him by at least 20 pounds, Sakuraba was the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport. The way Vitor lost, though, did him no favors. After a tentative opening couple of minutes, Belfort launched his trademark flurry of punches at Sakuraba. Sakuraba responded by ducking his head so that Vitor was punching the top of his noggin. Belfort kept throwing anyway. Three things happened: Sakuraba survived, unscathed; Vitor broke his hand; Vitor gassed. Belfort spent the rest of the fight on his back, absorbing kicks to the legs. He lost a clear decision.

*Belfort followed the loss to Sakuraba with a string of four straight victories in Pride. The first three came in dominating, if not riveting fashion. The last, against Heath Herring, was the most notable. Herring was a top 5 heavyweight in the world at the time. He had considerable size on Belfort, and appeared to control most of the bout. However, Vitor was given the nod by the judges. In some ways, it was impressive that Belfort could make the fight close enough against a much bigger foe to be in contention for the decision at all.

*"The Phenom" has displayed a wavering commitment to MMA his career. It was never highlighted in a more entertaining fashion than in Pride’s pre-fight video package for the Herring bout. A totally serious Belfort claimed that he wanted to get into making movies instead of fighting. When asked what type of movies, Vitor, with zero inflection, responded, “Comedies.” If you’ve never seen it, it’s worth tracking down.