Vitor Belfort once held the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship title. Belfort’s mixed martial arts career spanned over several years, during which he accumulated a record of 26 victories and 14 losses.
Belfort’s background is a blend of Greek-Brazilian heritage.
At the tender age of 17, Belfort received his black belt from Carlson Gracie, who was so impressed with the young fighter’s skills that he even offered to adopt him.
According to BJJDOC, Carlson and Belfort lived like father and son in a small apartment in West L.A. as Carlson opened his own Gracie gym. Carlson gave Belfort a t-shirt with “Vitor Gracie” written on the back and said, “I want to adopt you. I want you to take the Gracie name.”
Belfort holds the record for the most knockouts in UFC history, with a total of 12. He made his debut for the UFC at UFC 12 in 1997 and won his first two. During his first stint with the company, he went 5-1 under Dana White’s leadership, with his only loss coming to Randy Couture, a UFC Hall of Famer.
He then moved to Japan’s PRIDE Championships, where he won four consecutive matches after losing on points to Kazushi Sakuraba.
Belfort had three runs with the UFC, and his second stint proved to be his most successful. He captured the light-heavyweight title by defeating Couture in a bout that took place just weeks after his sister’s disappearance in 2004.
Vitor Belfort even came very close to defeating Jon Jones back in 2012.
Jon Jones refusing to tap to an armbar from Vitor Belfort is top tier savagery pic.twitter.com/ZKERSR0ME4
— 🌴ᴛʜᴇᴀʀᴛᴏꜰᴡᴀʀ🌴 (@TheArtOfWar6) July 11, 2022
Belfort vs Rockhold
In 2013, Belfort had an epic duel with Luke Rockhold.
Seven years ago today, Jon Anik spoke Vitor Belfort’s knockout of Luke Rockhold into existence.
This was Rockhold’s UFC debut.#UFC
https://t.co/rAeWQkWE2N— JReal (@BloodyCanvasJon) May 18, 2020
The bout started off with both trying to find their range. Rockhold attempted to land a head kick, but the first one caused him to lose his balance and slip, while the second one was easily blocked by Belfort. Belfort stuffed Rockhold’s takedown attempt and immediately popped back up, hitting Rockhold with a flurry of punches.
The two continued to exchange shots in the center of the octagon until Belfort was able to set up and execute a beautiful spinning heel kick that dropped Rockhold. With Rockhold on the ground, Belfort pounced on him and proceeded to rain down punches, causing referee Leon Roberts to step in and stop the fight at 2:32 of the first round.
Michael Bisping blames Belfort for the loss of sight in his eye
https://twitter.com/bvidsc/status/1218929245268955137
However, Belfort’s career ended with a knockout loss to Lyoto Machida in his final octagon outing at UFC 244. He finished his third run with the UFC with a record of 8-6, having been knocked out four times in his last five.
Rogan shared with Jorge Masvidal on the recent episode of JRE:
“Listen f***ing Vitor changed his whole f**king world. When TRT was in, all the sudden Vitor was the – I think TRT Vitor was one of the greatest fighters of all time.”
Masvidal concurred: “Most dangerous.”
With Joe adding: “He was so confident.
Masvidal went on to add: “He turns into like a mutant when there’s… like a mutant. Certain things involved in his body”
Rogan added: “Pharmacological intervention. Lot of s**t gets going.”
“I kind of wish they’d bring it back. I really do because there’s something about the veterans. They have the mind. Like that was the thing with V Tor they had this Wealth of (experience).”
Interestingly, Rogan’s familiarity with Belfort dates back to 1997:
“I mean I first saw a Vitor fight in 1997. I was training in the same gym as him because I was a Carlson Gracie’s in LA and he was 19. And, you know, we all knew like god damn.”
“He was a f***ing athlete. Crazy athlete”
Masvidal pointed out that he had a rare gift: “He was a black belt and was KOing people dea d.”