Official UFC Fight Night: Belfort vs. Hendo 2 Discussion Thread

Depending on who you ask, prelims are starting anywhere from 510pm ET to 530. I'll keep an eye out on that pick lock. Main card airs live on Fox Sports 1 at 8pm.

This is one of the best free cards in a while, ladies and gents. Make those picks count. 

People cannot handle the level of G Jitz is. 

I think Vitor is a scary matchup for Weidman but as long has age hasn't caught up to Anderson I see it very unlikely Vitor can do much against him a great chi force fighter will always beat a great jin force fighter in my opinion.

Sorry for reopening this thread two hours after the last post, but I'd like to say a few things:

1) First UFC event I got to see live. The Brazilian crowd is excellent, and the arena was full since the first fight. Although I am used to it because of soccer events, the specific crowd chanting never gets old (for an example, when Tomé got up from the second (and pretty ugly) groin shot, everyone started screaming "Balls of steel! Balls of steel!".

2) Holy ****, 11th! When the results started going my way, I wondered if I could get to first place with those. I couldn't, but still, nice event for me. If I hadn't missed Fight for The Troops I'd be pretty high in the Autumn contest.

3) Vitor is scary as hell. He seemed to be moving twice as fast than everyone else competing today. I think that even if despite his seeming disinterest (some interviews of his are making me quite pessimistic about the effort he is putting into training for the rematch) Anderson recaptures the belt, I don't think he will want to defend it again. In that case, who ya got? Vitor, Chris, Ronaldo or Lyoto?

4) I think Americans take the booing waaaay too seriously. The crowd will side with one fighter, and boo the other. And unless the judges robbed Lyoto Machida of a W and gave it to you we won't boo your post-fight interview. The chanting of "Uh, vai morrer!" ("hooray you're gonna die!") is just a way of having fun. Yes, we will most likely side with the local fighter, but the crowd will ALWAYS pick a side. Cezar Mutante was booed A LOT, and he is Brazilian. Ryan Laflare faced an Argentinian and was being booed because hell, who doesn't love Santiago?

* Edited at 11.10.2013, 2:11 AM ET *

Personally, I'd love to see a 2014 showdown between Vitor and Machida, no matter what happens with their respective title ambitions. 

I'm honestly not that impressed with Vitor's win over Hendo, Henderson is getting old...43, Vitor at 36 has the more testosterone now than when he was 20 and has really seemed I to have enter his second prime. Also, Vitor's wrestling defense has gotten so much better from the years he spent training under Randy Couture no one hasn't been able to take him down besides Rumble in years and years and we all saw how that worked out. 

Lets face it, you can have Roy Nelson's chin but when you're THAT MUCH slower, THAT MUCH less technical and THAT MUCH more predictable Vitor is going to put you down quick. Also Hendo has been dropped plenty, I had a hard time seeing Vitor the king of killer instinct letting him recover if he got rocked and or dropped. I just don't see how anyone thought a plodding Hendo head hunting with his 1 punch arsenal was going to really have anymore than a punchers chance. 

 I have a feeling Weidman is going to upset Anderson once again, if so Im sure Vitor will be next in line and uhh Machida will probably sit the bench for his shot too if he beats Mousasi? If Mousasi wins not sure who he'd face at this point but they'd probably should put him against the winner of Rashad and Sonnen who both said they will be coming down to 185 if I'm not mistaken . 

Man MW is Stacked, homies don't know how to act, stacked!

Sometimes the result alone doesn't tell everything. I am not impressed by the fact that Vitor got the KO, but I was impressed by how it happened. In his last few fights, Vitor has showed godlike improvement, but the knockouts of Bisping and Rockhold were less impressive than this one was because they were based on a formula that Belfort has always used: deceiving, speed-based offense that left little to no space for counters and/or gap-closing. Against Henderson, Vitor stood away from the octagon's center, and actively circled towards Henderson's power side, almost as if he was baiting Henderson's hellacious right hand. It seems to me that that the plan didn't quite work - Henderson opted to feint the power shot and close the gap on Vitor instead, but Belfort didn't give a **** and countered with an uppercut so evil that it could help Brazil's space program. From there, he blitzed Henderson, and once Belfort has you wobbled there is no way in hell you are going to survive.

The impressive part? Standing in the outside and looking for counters was Anderson Silva's way of defeating Dan Henderson. You see, I think that contrary to popular belief, Dan Henderson has enough tools to tag elite strikers, and that was what was happening every time Anderson charged him. Silva then opted to lure him into a brawl and let his superior speed take over. I think that Belfort understood that Henderson is pretty much the same fighter he was five years ago (although a little slower), so he mirrored Anderson's improvised gameplan, with astounding results. That tells three things:

1) Belfort can now make effective gameplans and stick with them. For a guy that stood flatfooted in front of Anderson Silva and pulled guard against Jon Jones, that is definitely an improvement.

2) Belfort can now counter against decent opposition.

3) Belfort has become an incredibly accurate striker, without losing speed in the process.

That means that Belfort is now an incredibly athletic, strong, accurate and fast striker who is able to counter, manage distance and build solid gameplans. He comes on top whenever he brawls, never fails to finish an opponent he has hurt and as displayed against Jon Jones, his guard is getting aggressive. Conclusion: he is a scary dude.

EDIT: Huh, I might have read too much into 70 seconds of fighting. I am sleepy as hell, I hope what I just said will still make sense after I wake up tomorrow.

* Edited at 11.10.2013, 3:47 AM ET *

"but Belfort didn't give a **** and countered with an uppercut so evil that it could help Brazil's space program"

If we can get a monkey to the moon, there's a decent chance we can get a Brazilian to the moon @Krull.

* Edited at 11.10.2013, 2:04 PM ET *

I kept away from the interwebs until today after I just finished watching the Brazil card and daaaamn!

I think is the best Brazilian card I've seen, much more competitive matches, Thatch was a beast, Thiago is a tough sob and he made him tap with that brutal liver knee,  I hope they give Thiago another fight.

Stephens was impressive I can't believe I changed my first round KO by Stephens for a Jason dec.

Vitor may have put an end to Hendo's UFC career, I don't know what is more powerful jesus or TRT  but daaamn we can finally say Vitor is back! lol

3 fights, 3 1st round finishes, 3 KO's, 3 head kicks that's Jesus on TRT.

also..those tough russians

I agree.
I was slowly starting to hate brazilian cards, mostly because of mismatches in favor of the brazilians, the lack of quality MMA on account of filling the card with unknow, lackluster brazilian fighters, ******** decisions, etc.
This card made it right.