Did A "New" Vitor Belfort Show Up At UFC 103?

by Kelvin Hunt on Sep 20, 2009 8:00 AM EDT in News Comment 3 comments

Vitor Belfort took out the always tough and highly ranked Rich Franklin at UFC 103. The two fighters danced and pawed with feints for the better part of 2 minutes before they really engaged for the first time. Belfort was strictly looking to counter, and you could tell that Franklin wanted to press the action but was tentative. However, Franklin decided to engage and Belfort was able to land a glancing punch near Franklin's ear that wobbled the former UFC middleweight champion. At that point, Belfort swarmed him with several unanswered punches before the referee jumped in to stop the fight. It was a very efficient performance by Belfort, so you have to ask did the 'new' Vitor Belfort show up at UFC 103?

I'm not so sure that I'm sipping that kool aid just yet. While he was able to defeat Franklin, there just wasn't enough engagement from either fighter before the fight ended in my opinion to answer that question. It was similar to the win Belfort had over Matt Lindland at the last Affliction event. Yes, Belfort won impressively over a quality opponent. However, there were still questions about if the 'real' Vitor showed up then as well. Now he'll move down to the middleweight division where the champion awaits either Belfort or Dan Henderson. I'll say this, if the Belfort that showed up tonight were fighting Anderson Silva, we might have been treated to a snooze fest since Belfort offered no offense unless Franklin came forward. I'm not really intrigued by a Belfort/Silva match up. What say you?

UFC 103: Franklin vs. Belfort coverage

0 recs | Comment 3 comments | Share

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

I agree that it is too soon to tell where Vitor stands at this point in time. We won’t really know where his head/heart is until he is faced with some difficulty in the cage. People are jumping the gun by comparing Franklin/Belfort to Franklin/Henderson. The fact of the matter is that Vitor and Dan are vastly different fighters in almost every facet of the game. Henderson is essentially a wrestler who likes to head hunt with his heavy right hand, Rich did not have to worry about submissions and Hendo’s striking is much easier to gameplan against. Vitor was a threat to Rich both on the mat and standing. Vitor’s hands are a whole different world than Hendo’s, he throws both hands with KO power and with speed that few other mma fighters in the world can match or cope with during a fight.

For Franklin, Vitor is about as bad as it gets in a style vs style comparison. Therefore Rich is not the best measuring stick to gauge Vitor’s current limits. I’d like to see Vitor against Marquardt next, I think it would give a clearer picture of where Vitor stands at MW.

by villin on Sep 20, 2009 8:37 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs