Background check:Vitor Belfort

Vitor Belfort was born April 1st 1977 in Rio De Janeiro Brazil. He is 6ft tall and weighs in at 185lbs with a reach of 73 inches. Vitor holds a black belt in Judo and BJJ and a blue belt in karate. His record stands at 19-8(13ko,2sub). He trains with Xtreme Couture. Vitor’s MMA debut was in 1996 against Jon Hess in Superbrawl 2, a fight that Vitor won by knockout in 12 seconds.

Vitor’s second fight was his UFC debut in 1997. He faced Tra Telligman and won by TKO (cut) after 1:17 of round 1. He then went on to beat Scott Ferrozzo by TKO in 43 seconds on the same night to win the UFC 12 HW tournament. After beating Tank Abbott by TKO he went on to face Randy Couture at UFC 15. Randy won by TKO after 8 minutes of action. In 1998 Vitor debuted at 200lbs, facing Wanderlei Silva. After 44 seconds the ref stopped the fight in favor of Belfort who overwhelmed Silva with a furious flurry of punches that sent Silva down against the cage.

Since then Belfort has competed in Pride, beating Gilbert Yvel, Heath Herring and Bobby Southworth among others. He beat Marvin Eastman at UFC 43 by KO, then at UFC 46 he beat Randy Couture by TKO avenging his loss and winning the UFC light-heavyweight title. Randy though came back at UFC 49 and reclaimed the belt by way of TKO. During his time in affliction Belfort beat Terry Martin by KO and brutally finished Matt Lindland in 37 seconds in 2009. His most recent outing was against Rich Franklin at UFC 109 in a catchweight bout at 195lbs. Belfort finished Franklin in 3 minutes with a fast flurry of punches earning him the TKO win.

Belfort was sceduled to fight Anderson Silva but a shoulder injury has forced him to withdraw. Belfort is widely known for his superior hand speed and striking, and has provided some legendary moments and highlight reels in MMA. I hope we will be able to see Silva vs Belfort in the not too distant future.

Info source:Wikipedia.org