Tag: UFC on FX 7

Vitor Belfort’s TKO of Michael Bisping Marks the Brazilian’s Best UFC Moment

Vitor Belfort did it twice to Michael Bisping, and in both instances, he did it swiftly, violently and gracefully. Bisping narrowly survived the first head kick “The Phenom” landed near the end of the first round at their main-event tilt at UFC on…

Vitor Belfort did it twice to Michael Bisping, and in both instances, he did it swiftly, violently and gracefully.

Bisping narrowly survived the first head kick “The Phenom” landed near the end of the first round at their main-event tilt at UFC on FX 7, which took place Saturday at the Ibirapuera Arena in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Unfortunately for “The Count,” he failed to escape the Brazilian’s wrath for a second time early in the second round.

Belfort once again caught the elusive Bisping with his hands down, this time landing a flush head kick above the right eye of The Count early in the second round, sending him dazed to the canvas. 

The Phenom pounced on Bisping like a bloodthirsty lion, dropping hammerfists and elbows to the head and body until referee Dan Miragliotta had seen enough.

Belfort began his UFC career at the tender age of 19 in February 1997. But of his 11 finishes in the promotion, none epitomized the fighting spirit of The Phenom more accurately than his TKO of Bisping.

Before Saturday, Belfort‘s most notable win in the octagon came in a controversial victory over Randy Couture in a light heavyweight title fight in January 2004.

Just 49 seconds into the bout, Couture suffered a corneal abrasion, an unfortunate injury that temporarily cost him the fight and the belt. Belfort won via TKO and took home the light heavyweight strap, which he ultimately relinquished roughly seven months later to Couture.

On a night in which the typically outspoken Bisping could have punched his ticket to his first UFC title fight, he uncharacteristically swallowed his pride and gave the 35-year-old former light heavyweight champion his due in his post-fight interview with Jon Anik.

“It was a beautiful kick. He caught me, and he was a better man than me tonight. You win some, you lose some. I am not going away. Trust me, I’ll be back at the top of this pile before you f****** know it.”

Belfort has gotten his hand raised after eight of his last 10 scraps, recording three KO’s, three TKO’s, a submission and a decision win along the way.

His only taste of defeat in that span came when he absorbed a stunning front-kick knockout from middleweight champ Anderson Silva and when he tapped to a keylock from light heavyweight kingpin Jon Jones.

With his confidence soaring, and in his post-fight interview with Anik, Belfort requested a rematch with Jones while offering some demeaning sentiments regarding light heavyweight title challenger Chael Sonnen.

“I worked so hard. I want to get the belt. Get that punk Chael Sonnen out. Let me fight Jon Jones. I need that rematch. Get that clown away. You did a reality show. Go home, and let me fight the champion. It will be champion against a champion, not that clown.”

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UFC on FX 7 Results: 5 Fights for Daniel Sarafian to Take Next

Saturday night wasn’t Daniel Sarafian’s night. The powerful TUF: Brazil product didn’t exactly live up to the hype surrounding him.The stout middleweight met the discordant C.B. Dollaway in his official UFC debut Saturday night, and w…

Saturday night wasn’t Daniel Sarafian’s night. The powerful TUF: Brazil product didn’t exactly live up to the hype surrounding him.

The stout middleweight met the discordant C.B. Dollaway in his official UFC debut Saturday night, and while he proved a game opponent, he failed to do what most expected: destroy C.B. Dollaway.

Dollaway was rattled on more than one occasion in the early portions of the fight, but as the clock wore on, Sarafian slowed.

Dollaway was able to take control midway through the second round, and he did a fair job of keeping the upper hand over his opponent for the remainder of the fight.

Fortunately for Sarafian, the loss means little. Octagon jitters may well have played a factor in the fight, and the Brazilian did keep things competitive until the final bell sounded.

Daniel will be back, the only question is, who welcomes him in his sophomore effort?

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Michael Bisping vs. Vitor Belfort: What Went Wrong for ‘The Count’?

Michael Bisping and his championship aspirations are no more. With a thundering head kick that echoed for miles throughout the city of Sao Paulo, Vitor “The Phenom” Belfort effectively ruined Bisping’s short-term career under the UFC banner. …

Michael Bisping and his championship aspirations are no more. 

With a thundering head kick that echoed for miles throughout the city of Sao Paulo, Vitor “The Phenom” Belfort effectively ruined Bisping‘s short-term career under the UFC banner. 

Dana White officially set the stage for “The Count” moments before the night’s main event kicked off, tweeting:

Unfortunately, just like every other time Bisping faced top competition with a chance to stake his claim for a middleweight title shot, he faltered, and this loss can be traced directly to one momentarily lapse of concentration—the head kick that effectively ended the fight. 

…But that would be ignorant. 

No doubt, Belfort‘s left high kick was the bout’s most significant strike, and it is easy to point to this as “what went wrong” for Bisping. 

That would be too easy, though, and it would entirely overlook the fact that Bisping had a shoddy, nearly nonexistent game plan in this fight. 

Was his strategy really to jab and leg kick his way to victory? 

I understand his thought process here, and he at least circled away from Belfort‘s power hand for the most part, but this simply was not going to win him the fight. 

He was not actively engaging Belfort enough. He jabbed, moved, threw a leg kick and moved, never forcing Belfort to react and chase his movements. 

Along with this, he never attempted to force Belfort into a grappling match against the cage, an area he could have worn down and beat up his Brazilian foe. 

Put plainly, it is easy to say “the head kick decided the fight,” but Bisping penned his own epitaph by refusing to push the pace and force Belfort into a grinding fight. 

Bisping had the better conditioning, and he arguably had the better wrestling as well, but he never put the fight in a position where either of these advantages mattered. 

He stuck-and-moved, landed little baby punches and then got caught. 

With his game plan (or lack thereof), what more could he expect? 

For fans of MMA, heavy metal or general absurdity, .

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UFC on FX 7 Results: What’s Next for the Losers

Another night of UFC fights. Another set of eleven fighters (well…10 this time) now officially coming off a loss. What this card lacked in star power, it made up for in exciting finishes tailored directly for the Brazilian audience. With fighters at …

Another night of UFC fights. Another set of eleven fighters (well…10 this time) now officially coming off a loss.

What this card lacked in star power, it made up for in exciting finishes tailored directly for the Brazilian audience. With fighters at the top of their division, at the bottom of their division and everywhere in between, there are some very compelling matches to be made.

But who, pray tell, should face who? Find out right here!

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Vitor Belfort vs. Michael Bisping: What Went Right for Belfort

I was wrong about how Vitor Belfort vs. Michael Bisping would go down. Very wrong.I picked Belfort to win the fight, but not the way he did. In fact, the way the fight played out was the exact formula I believed would lead to a Belfort loss. You s…

I was wrong about how Vitor Belfort vs. Michael Bisping would go down. Very wrong.

I picked Belfort to win the fight, but not the way he did. In fact, the way the fight played out was the exact formula I believed would lead to a Belfort loss. 

You see, I thought in order for Belfort to win, he would have to blitz Bisping with straight punches, a technique that has found him tremendous success in the past. I also believed that if Belfort tried to exchange jabs and two-punch combinations with Bisping, he’d be easily outpointed by his foe.

In my estimation, the fight played right into Bisping’s hands and directly against Belfort. But of course, Belfort won. He not only won, but he won by scoring a decisive knockout in the second round.

So with everything seemingly unfolding to his disadvantage, how was Belfort able to take home a win at UFC on FX 7?

Well, it’s simple really—he surprised everyone—including Bisping.

Because he’s known for wielding ridiculously fast and powerful hands, the head kicks Belfort used to first wound Bisping, then finish him, were almost certainly not something the Brit had worried out while preparing for the match. They really came out of nowhere, and the element of surprise is hardly negligible in combat.

It also helped that Bisping didn’t put too much pressure on Belfort, which is what he should have begun doing when the chances to counter the Brazilian’s explosions were evidently coming. But instead of attacking decisively, Bisping remained on the outside, in range of Belfort’s head kick even after one struck him in the opening frame.

And that’s what decided the outcome—Belfort’s implementation of unexpected tactics and Bisping’s inability to make the adjustments to counter them.

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Belfort vs. Bisping: Recapping the Fightmetric Numbers

Vitor Belfort knocked brash British standout Michael Bisping silly with a vicious head kick in Round 2 of their UFC on FX 7 main event. That is the only strike that matters. Playing with and analyzing Fightmetric statistics is quite fun, but …

Vitor Belfort knocked brash British standout Michael Bisping silly with a vicious head kick in Round 2 of their UFC on FX 7 main event. 

That is the only strike that matters. 

Playing with and analyzing Fightmetric statistics is quite fun, but in an instance like this one, the stats are pretty lackluster and come down to one incredibly significant strike. 

This crushing kick aside, the Fightmetric statistics tell the story of a relatively even fight.  

 

Round 1

In Round 1, Michael Bisping kept his range and threw jabs and leg kicks at Belfort as he circled away from “The Phenom’s” powerful left hand. 

This was probably the right idea going in, but Bisping connected on just 19 percent (10 of 52) of his significant strikes, and he appeared unwilling to switch things up or develop a more cohesive game plan as the round progressed.

Basically, it was jab city and a lot of movement. 

As the round ended, however, Belfort clipped Bisping with a head kick (foreshadowing, anyone?) and promptly unloaded a barrage of strikes as the Brit was pinned against the cage. 

During this exchange, Belfort ran his significant strike count for the round to nine total on 36 attempts, good for 25 percent, and he also stuffed a desperation takedown from Bisping—the only takedown attempt of the fight. 

Where the statistics are concerned, Round 1 shows Bisping threw more shots but did so with less accuracy.

 

Round 2

Belfort dominated Round 2 on paper and in reality.

Landing nine of 17 significant strikes that included the fight-ending blows, Belfort made good on 53 percent of his significant strike attempts and smartly avoided any danger.

During the round’s short duration, Bisping again failed to establish a rhythm, landing just four of 14 (29 percent) of his significant strikes.

 

In Summary

There isn’t much to take from these Fightmetric numbers, really. Neither fighter performed brilliantly, but Belfort did exactly what he needed to do to secure the victory—he caught and finished Bisping. 

What is most baffling to me was Bisping‘s seeming lack of a game plan. I personally thought he would try his hand at grappling against Belfort, but he instead appeared content to pick “The Phenom” apart from a distance. 

The problem with this is that Belfort never really chased him or threw any significant volume of punches, so Bisping was doing nothing to wear him down and force him to gas as expected. 

Making this worse, Bisping‘s punches and kicks were pitter-pattery and did no damage whatsoever. 

Overall, Bisping failed miserably in his UFC goal, and the statistics back up this notion.   


For fans of MMA, heavy metal or general absurdity, .

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