UFC legend Vitor Belfort suffered his third consecutive loss Saturday, as Kelvin Gastelum knocked him out in the middleweight main event of UFC Fight Night 106 at Centro de Formacao Olimpica do Nordeste in Fortaleza, Brazil.
Gastelum scored a TKO triumph with punches at the 3:52 mark of the first round.
The 39-year-old Belfort fell to 25-14 with the loss, and was unsuccessful in front of his home crowd after losses to Ronaldo Souza and Gegard Mousasi in his previous two fights. Gastelum improved to 14-2.
As MMA journalist Chamatkar Sandhu pointed out, Belfort‘s decisive loss took the air out of the building:
Per MMAFighting.com, Saturday’s win was an example of Gastelum‘s improvement with each passing fight:
Despite his recent struggles, The Phenom entered Saturday’s bout confident that he would be able to turn things around, according to Guilherme Cruz of MMAFighting.com:
People talk about losses, but my last fights were against the toughest guys. Nobody wants to fight these guys. Everybody is running away from them. It’s obvious that I didn’t fight the way I should, but there’s the mistakes I made in the fight and there’s their qualities, too. You can’t define a person by two fights. That’s what needs to change. To rewrite my story, to learn new things, to grow. To look ahead. There’s light at the end of the tunnel. Come on!
Belfort faced a stiff challenge at UFC Fight Night 106 in the form of a fighter who is 14 years his junior.
Gastelum had won consecutive bouts over Johny Hendricks and Tim Kennedy ahead of his clash with Belfort, but making weight has been an issue for him.
The California native has failed to make weight on three occasions at welterweight, which resulted in his moving back up to middleweight to defeat Kennedy.
He remained at middleweight for the Belfort bout, and he hoped it would serve as a springboard to even bigger fights, regardless of the weight class, per Cruz:
I’m not against [staying at 185], but I feel like welterweight is my optimal weight class. But I’m not against staying at 185. What I want is the No. 1 contender fight after this fight, whether it’s at middleweight or at welterweight. I want to fight for the No. 1 contender so I might get my title shot. But it doesn’t matter if I’m at middleweight or welterweight, I just want to fight the No. 1 contender.
Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com speculated on what could be next for Gastelum:
Saturday’s win may well have put Gastelum into the No. 1 contender conversation, although there are still major question marks regarding what weight class he will settle on moving forward.
As for Belfort, he has now lost three straight fights for just the second time in his illustrious career.
He bounced back the first time by winning seven of his next nine bouts, but with his 40th birthday quickly approaching, retirement whispers will start to surround Belfort.
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