Browne most recently got his ass handed to him by Fabricio Werdum, who outstruck “Hapa” to a clear-cut unanimous decision victory at UFC on FOX 11 back in April. The loss snapped a streak of three consecutive first-round knockout wins for Browne, which he earned against Gabriel Gonzaga, Alistair Overeem, and Josh Barnett.
Browne most recently got his ass handed to him by Fabricio Werdum, who outstruck “Hapa” to a clear-cut unanimous decision victory at UFC on FOX 11 back in April. The loss snapped a streak of three consecutive first-round knockout wins for Browne, which he earned against Gabriel Gonzaga, Alistair Overeem, and Josh Barnett.
(Huh. Now that I think about it, it’s obvious that the UFC put two title fights on this card because either Belfort or Pettis will pull out of the event due to injury. Seriously, I’m calling it now.)
(And are you f*cking kidding me with that Bruce Buffer photo? The man has abs like an action figureand he can do the splits? He is truly the world’s most complete man.)
Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza has quietly placed himself into the upper echelon of the UFC’s middleweight division. However, he still isn’t the clear-cut favorite to be the next in line for a shot at the strap that is currently held by…
Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza has quietly placed himself into the upper echelon of the UFC’s middleweight division. However, he still isn’t the clear-cut favorite to be the next in line for a shot at the strap that is currently held by Chris Weidman. As he prepares to face GegardMousasi on September 5 the question has come up as to whether or not he should leap frog Luke Rockhold if he gets his hand raised at the end of the night. When comparing the two contenders and their potential impact in the spotlight, the answer to this question is a flat out “no” but the reasoning behind the decision is different than expected.
“Jacare” Souza and Luke Rockhold have two careers that are closely linked to one another. Back in 2011 Rockhold defeated Souza to capture the Strikeforce middleweight title that he would hold until being brought over into the UFC. This would be the last fight that “Jacare” would lose and has put together six straight wins since that fateful night.
Now, both competitors are in the UFC’s 185-pound group and working hard to obtain a shot at the belt. The UFC rankings has Souza listed at No. 4 and Rockhold at No. 5. Souza is set for a rematch against former Dream champion Mousasi in a few weeks while Rockhold does not have a bout scheduled at this moment. “Jacare” is undefeated in three appearances in the Octagon while Luke has gone 2-1. These baseline facts would seem like “Jacare” is the clear cut favorite between the two, but diving deeper into the business of the situation would present a different answer.
Chris Weidman and VitorBelfort are set to face off at UFC 181 in Las Vegas. The winner of that contest should be charged to face Luke Rockhold next. That doesn’t mean that “Jacare” is any less deserving, however this should be a business decision that the UFC makes to present the most interesting fight to the mixed martial arts community. While the UFC is the largest promotion in the MMA business, the importance of entertainment value does play a part in the fights that are made. This is the main reason why Rockhold should be considered the next in line, whether or not “Jacare” gets a win over the “Dreamcatcher” at UFC Fight Night.
Both Ronaldo and Luke have the in-cage abilities to put on exciting fights. Since coming to the UFC they have both stopped two of their three opponents in highlight-reel fashion. The decision as to who should get the next shot at the belt would be tough to make if basing it only upon how well they compete in the cage. Today’s sports-entertainment world places prominence on an individual’s ability to draw attention to their contests and that is where Rockhold stands out in front of Souza.
Rockhold has become one of the more outspoken competitors in the division. He’s been locked in verbal battle with individuals such as Michael Bisping and Belfort for the past few months. Recently, he went on record to question the validity of Belfort receiving another shot at the middleweight title.
“He got caught early for steroids in Nevada, got popped after this whole stint in Brazil. I owned up, I took my loss, no excuses,” Rockhold said as reported by Steven Marrocco of MMA Junkie. “But then he comes back, and the one time he tries to fight in the States, he fails the test. That right there, I’ve got no respect from him.”
That doesn’t mean that “Jacare” doesn’t know how to create a key sound bite when needed. His discussion about GegardMousasi with Combate.com (via Youtube) brought out the interesting quote that he was going to “annihilate” Mousasi and then challenge for the title. Fernando Arbex of Bloody Elbow translated the original conversation, which was in Portuguese, where Souza made a very interesting comment:
“Fighting him again it’s like just another fight. I’m ready to annihilate my opponent and have another victory in the UFC. I’m going to stop Mousasi. I’ve come to be undefeated in the UFC to loose for nobody,” Arbex reported via Bloody Elbow. “People have to keep believing in me because I’m going to be the champion of this division. But first I have to beat Mousasi to ask for something and after this fight I’ll ask for a title shot.”
While this is a great quote from the former Strikeforce champion, it would have had much more strength if delivered in English during a press event with the UFC.
Luke’s ability to grab the attention of North American fans at this time plays into his advantage of being the top contender once UFC 181 passes. If “Jacare” gets another win on September 5 he may be a step closer to getting a shot at the UFC’s middleweight belt. Yet, he should still be listed behind Luke due to the entertainment factor that the California native will bring into the Octagon.
At UFC 181, the No. 3 middleweight in the world, Vitor Belfort, is scheduled to take on Chris Weidman for the 185-pound championship title. Belfort has been on a tear since 2007. He is 10-2 in his last 12 fights, only losing to then-middleweight c…
At UFC 181, the No. 3 middleweight in the world, Vitor Belfort, is scheduled to take on Chris Weidman for the 185-pound championship title. Belfort has been on a tear since 2007. He is 10-2 in his last 12 fights, only losing to then-middleweight champion Anderson Silva at UFC 126 and current light heavyweight champion Jon Jones at UFC 152, respectively.
The 18-year veteran and former UFC light heavyweight champion brings tremendous knockout power and a wealth of experience to the Octagon against Weidman on December 6. The latter, plus his recent dispatching of other top contenders in his division, gives him much more than a puncher’s chance to emerge victorious in his championship matchup at UFC 181.
More Than a Puncher’s Chance
Not only has Belfort won 83 percent of his last dozen fights, in those victories, he has finished all but one of his foes.
The Phenom has not just reigned victorious over a great number of opponents, he has beaten highly talented combatants and former title holders in Rich Franklin, Yoshihiro Akiyama, Anthony Johnson, Michael Bisping, Luke Rockhold and Dan Henderson. His most recent knockout win over Henderson was significant in that the multiple-time world champion had never previously been knocked out.
As for Weidman, he is a two-time NCAA Division I All-American wrestler and has dominated some of his opponents by taking them down and imposing his will.
Belfort, on the other hand, holds a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and is more than capable of handling himself on the ground. In fact, the Brazilian has faced high-caliber wrestlers in the past and has emerged triumphant in many of those matchups. This gives light to Belfort’s confidence upon entering UFC 181.
According to Combate.com (translation via Fernando Arbex of Bloody Elbow), Belfort stated:
(Chris Weidman) has a lot of flaws in his game. We’ll exploit them. I’ve been studying Weidman and I believe that you will see a nice fight. I’m ready for five rounds of Jiu-Jitsu, Boxing, Muay Thai, Wrestling…This bout has been already very anticipated, I think it’ll be a great show.
All in all, Belfort was terrifyingly violent in his last three fights, finishing his opponents viciously. Given his versatility and ability to end fights quickly, Belfort may end up being Weidman’s toughest challenge to date.
Veteranship
Belfort has been fighting professionally since 1996. He is a former UFC champion and has fought the best of his era. He realizes that at 37 years old, however, his bout against Weidman will most likely represent his last opportunity to secure gold.
In that, one of the “flaws” about which Belfort wishes to exploit may be Weidman’s inexperience. In his interview with Combate.com, Belfort commented on his own profound experience and chance to attain another world title. He stated:
I’m as hungry as when I won my first world title at 19 years old. Today I’m 37 and I have the opportunity to be world champion for the third time in a third different division. With humility, determination and respect for my opponent, I’ll do my best to win my third belt.
The All-American is 12-0, and although he was most recently pushed to a decision against the former light heavyweight champion in Lyoto Machida at UFC 175, Weidman has never witnessed real adversity in the Octagon. At UFC 181, Belfort will attempt to expose the champion’s weaknesses and inexperience in his quest to reign atop the middleweight division.
Follow this Featured Columnist on Twitter @clintonbullock
UFC middleweight contender Tim Kennedy doesn’t have high hopes that upcoming title challenger Vitor Belfort will make it to his UFC 181 showdown with champ Chris Weidman.
In an interview with Bloody Elbow, the former two-time Strikeforce title ch…
UFC middleweight contender Tim Kennedy doesn’t have high hopes that upcoming title challenger VitorBelfort will make it to his UFC 181 showdown with champ Chris Weidman.
In an interview with Bloody Elbow, the former two-time Strikeforce title challenger went off on The Phenom’s checkered past involving performance-enhancing drugs.
Okay, it’s one of two things; either he gets to use steroids-he’s training, has wonderful doctors that get him through it all-and he’s able to compete, barely getting through with his drug tests. There’s like a 1 in 10 chance of that scenario happening. The other factors are that he tries to be clean, and he realizes that he can’t compete. Or he tries to go clean and gets hurt. Or he just uses the steroids and gets caught. One of those 3 options are the likelihood of the other 90% … VitorBelfort is not the old dinosaur or young dinosaur or whatever they call him. He’s a broken steroid addict.
Kennedy’s remarks echo exactly what ex-Strikeforce middleweight titleholder Luke Rockhold told Bloody Elbow last week, so it seems safe to say Belfort doesn’t have a lot of support from his fellow fighters about his December 6 title shot.
Belfort received a conditional license from the Nevada State Athletic Commission to fight “The All-American” late last month, as per Dan Stupp of MMA Junkie, despite failing a random drug test for elevated levels of testosterone in February.
The move received a ton of criticism among the fighting community, considering that Belfort had been an open user of testosterone-replacement therapy before the commission banned the treatment in February.
On top of that, the Brazilian slugger failed a drug test for the anabolic steroid 4-hydroxytestosterone after a decision loss to Dan Henderson under the PRIDE banner back in October 2006, as per MMA Weekly.
In the aforementioned interview, Kennedy referred to Belfort‘s licensing as “a horrible day for the sport.”
Kennedy, who is 6-1 since March 2011, is currently the No. 6 middleweight in the world, according to the UFC’s official rankings.
His sole setback came against Rockhold in July 2012, which was a Strikeforce championship bout.
The Greg Jackson’s MMA standout will look to make it five in a row when he squares off with surging prospect Yoel Romero at UFC 178 on September 27.
In the event that Belfort is unable to go against Weidman at the end of the year, would Kennedy—assuming he gets past Romero—be a suitable replacement?
John Heinis is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.
He’s the No. 1 Contender
All TRT discussions aside, Vitor Belfort has been on a colossal tear as of late—leaving his last three opponents with foggy memories of blitzing hand strikes and concussive head kicks.
He first took out the UFC’s …
He’s the No. 1 Contender
All TRT discussions aside, VitorBelfort has been on a colossal tear as of late—leaving his last three opponents with foggy memories of blitzing hand strikes and concussive head kicks.
He first took out the UFC’s No. 8-ranked middleweight Michael Bisping in the second round of their fight. He then went after the division’s fifth-ranked fighter in Luke Rockhold before placing him on the bad end of a highlight-reel knockout. Next came a light heavyweight matchup with Dan Henderson—the sequel to their first bout in 2006. A solid shin to the head left Henderson on the wrong end of a knockout for the first time in his storied career.
Turns out 2013 was a good year for Belfort.
This year was supposed to be a good year for him, too—he was set to take on UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman. A positive test for elevated testosterone levels took away his title shot, but it didn’t take away his status as the division’s No. 1 contender.
It Would Further Validate Weidman as the Man to Beat
Weidman‘s first victory over the reigning middleweight king left enough questions to warrant an immediate rematch. His second victory against Anderson Silva left them wanting even more. As far as we knew it, we would never know what have happened had Silva not clowned in his first outing or broken his leg in the second.
Either way, he’d bested the greatest fighter of all time twice and we needed to move on.
In comes LyotoMachida as the new champion’s second challenger. Akin to Silva, Machida was another elusive Brazilian counter-striker that was supposed to give Weidman fits in the standup department. But, akin to Silva, he didn’t.
Weidman stalked Machida around the Octagon, effectively cutting off the cage and preventing The Dragon from ever really setting up his strikes enough to warrant a five-round nod. He was unafraid of striking with another striker and wrestled when he needed to.
Though he couldn’t find a way to finish the former UFC light heavyweight champion, he proved he was the better fighter.
Unlike his bouts with Silva, there were no questions here.
Sure, Machida could’ve gotten started a little earlier to give himself enough time to win a five-round decision, but that’s not how The Dragon rolls.
Belfort, on the other hand, is literally the opposite. Consider him the antithetical Machida here—he wants to strike first and win fast. A win over Belfort would only prove Weidman capable of handling the best strikers that any division has to offer.
Weidman Could Close the TRT Saga
Belfort wasn’t the only UFC fighter to use testosterone-replacement therapy to help prepare for a bout, but he was certainly the most scrutinized one.
Unlike ChaelSonnen and Henderson—two other popular fighters who were synonymous with the controversial treatment—Belfort was succeeding. Sonnen lost three of his last four bouts by TKO before retiring from the sport, while Henderson has seen similar statistics—leaving many wishing he’d walk away from the sport as well.
TRT couldn’t save Sonnen or Henderson.
It’d be tough to argue the same for Belfort, though.
Without a doubt, this is the best version of Belfort that we have ever seen. He’s running through top-tier opponents in dramatic fashion. But he’s doing it as a muscular 37-year-old man, and that has to raise some questions.
He’s got the wisdom of a seasoned fighter and the physical capabilities of a younger version of himself. It shouldn’t matter now, though, because Belfort won’t be on the controversial substance anymore.
Meanwhile, Weidman is moving full steam ahead to prove that Belfort is not the same fighter and the Nevada State Athletic Commission and the UFC made the right call by banning TRT.
From a purely competitive standpoint, this is a fight that most of us are dying to see. Taking all of the context into consideration should make most of us think twice, though.
He Could Fool Us Again
Most MMA fans want to remember Belfort as the man who was able to run Wanderlei Silva across the cage with a blurry barrage of punches before leaving him with nobody but John McCarthy to keep him company.
Few want to remember him as the man who tested positive for anabolic steroids after his loss to Henderson at Pride 32: The Real Deal (Yes, the irony kills me as well).
Whether you chose to forgive or forget Belfort‘s mistake is up to you. Chances are you probably don’t care as much about his first positive test anymore because you were too busy watching him demolish pretty much everybody not named Anderson Silva or Jon Jones in his latest stint with the UFC.
Belfort‘s a mere eight years removed and all but recovered from his first positive test. He’s only two months removed from his second and still has a ways to go.
We wanted to believe that old Vitor was merely using TRT to supplement the hormonal gaps that young Vitor‘s mistakes created. We wanted to believe that whatever possible advantages TRT could create for any fighter were irrelevant because Belfort wasn’t abusing the treatment to reach such peaks. We wanted to believe that he’d learned his lesson.
We were wrong.
Yet, here we are—just five months away from watching Belfort challenge for his third UFC title in four years.
With TRT now banned in the UFC and the eyes of the NSAC constantly upon him, it’s unlikely Belfort gets a third opportunity to further damage his already fragile reputation.
Be that as it may, it’s probably best to proceed with caution.
Kristian Ibarra is a Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report. He also serves as the sports editor at San Diego State University’s student-run newspaper, The Daily Aztec. Follow him on Twitter at @Kristian_Ibarra for all things MMA.
Vitor Belfort may be down to his last strike, but the Nevada State Athletic Commission is still giving him good pitches to hit.
There were very few curveballs thrown Belfort’s way on Wednesday, as Fox Sports’ Marc Raimondi reported that the NSAC …
VitorBelfort may be down to his last strike, but the Nevada State Athletic Commission is still giving him good pitches to hit.
There were very few curveballs thrown Belfort’s way on Wednesday, as Fox Sports’ Marc Raimondi reported that the NSAC granted him a conditional license to fight Chris Weidman for the UFC middleweight title in Las Vegas on Dec. 6. As a result, Belfort will serve a defacto nine-month suspension for failing a surprise drug test back in February and will face increased commission testing for the rest of his career.
Otherwise, he’s good to go and will suffer fairly minimal consequences.
For anyone who’d been reading between the lines leading up to this meeting, none of this was particularly shocking. The UFC had remained oddly confident that Belfort would clear the NSAC’s hurdles and be allowed back on active duty by the time Weidman is ready to meet him in the cage.
The fight company officially confirmed their bout for UFC 181 at Mandalay Bay just seconds after Belfort received commission approval, furthering the perception that all the principals pretty much knew what was going to happen before the meeting even began:
Though he briefly mentioned it during a prepared opening statement, none of the commissioners asked Belfort about 2006, when he failed an NSAC drug test after Pride 32. Nor did they ask him about how he’s transitioning off testosterone replacement therapy—the controversial medical treatment that fighters spent years claiming was vital to their careers but now act like was completely elective after the NSACoutlawed it.
“Of course, I have to have a new way of training,” an emotional Belfort offered, via MMAFighting.com’s Luke Thomas. “In the beginning, I was very affected, but I’m deciding that my mind will take over my body. I’m just training smart. I’ve got to be smart with the age that I have, with the experience.”
Mostly the panel seemed to take his word for it. He’s fine. Off the stuff now. Mind over matter. Nothing to worry about.
By rubber-stamping his future without pressing him more, the commission let slip perhaps our last best chance to clear up the unknowns of Belfort’s recent past. Now his current three-fight win streak (all of them by stunning head-kick knockout) may always be clouded by questions about his use of TRT, which was banned just four months after his explosive victory over Dan Henderson in Brazil.
If anything can be said in the commission’s favor, it’s that Belfort’s next fight will necessarily now be in Nevada, where the regulatory body appears committed to its enhanced drug testing program. New commissioner Anthony A. Marnell essentially told Belfort he and the commission’s drug screeners would be his new best friends as long as he carries on with his career.
“I’ll give you my definition of reasonable testing going forward from this commissioner’s perspective, that we’re going to drug test you to the day you retire,” Marnell said, via Thomas. “That’s my definition of reasonable. We, in my opinion, should be in and around your career until the day you call it quits.”
Marnell pushed back the hardest on Wednesday, and his voice was a refreshing one on the NSAC. Let’s hope those strong words mean we can be reasonably certain Belfort is fighting clean when he faces Weidman in December.
Of course, we’ve heard these kinds of assurances before. UFC President Dana White told fans during a Q&A that the company was “testing the s–t” out of Belfort during his magical 2013 run, but the first time he was subjected to a surprise independent drug test, the fighter failed it. Perhaps the NSAC will be able to keep a little bit closer tabs.
Wednesday’s meeting also reminded us of an inconvenient, but longstanding, suspicion. As committed as the NSAC is to ridding combat sports of performance enhancing drugs, it also must keep its eye on the state’s bottom line.
If UFC 181 goes down as scheduled—featuring Weidman vs. Belfort and Anthony Pettis’ lightweight title bout with Gilbert Melendez—it is expected to bring a heap of money to the Las Vegas economy. It would perhaps be naive to think such monetary considerations don’t weigh on the minds of local politicians as they mete out their various brands of justice.
By contrast, the commission’s treatment of the recently retired ChaelSonnen was much harsher. The NSAC briefly considered a lifetime ban for Sonnen after his multiple recent PED-related infractions, but it ultimately settled on a two-year suspension and a demand that he advise the commission on how current athletes may be trying to game the system.
Such, we surmise, are the differences between a fighter who can still earn and a fighter who can’t.
So now, Belfort must simply toe the line. So long as he passes the commission’s future tests, he’ll be able to coast into UFC 181 with a chance to fulfill his long-discussed, if badly tarnished, destiny.
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