The 5 best UFC fighters from Brazil

#4 Vitor Belfort

Vitor Belfort's longevity is unparalleled in the UFC

One of the most controversial figures in UFC history, it’s hard to believe really that Vitor has now been fighting in the UFC for two decades, and yet he’s still ticking along. In that time frame, he’s fought a laundry list of UFC and MMA legends – Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, Anderson Silva, Wanderlei Silva, you could go on for days. And he’s reinvented himself on numerous occasions and until basically the last two years or so, he’s never been too far away from the UFC title picture.

Belfort debuted back at UFC 12 and burst onto the scene by winning the Heavyweight tournament at that show. The word was that he was a jiu-jitsu based grappler, but instead he shocked anyone by displaying boxing skills and hand speed largely unseen in the UFC at the time. A loss to Randy Couture proved he wasn’t unbeatable though, and then a run in PRIDE followed, where Vitor reinvented himself as a wrestling-based fighter.

When he returned to the UFC, he brought back his striking style and opened up a cut on Marvin Eastman that looked like Eastman had been hit with a machete. That was enough to earn him a Light-Heavyweight title shot against Randy Couture, and it was this shot that saw Vitor claim his only UFC title, although it was largely a fluke win and Couture regained his title soon after.

A bad run of results saw Vitor in the wilderness outside the UFC from 2005 to 2009, but he returned again and was able to take out the likes of Rich Franklin and Yoshihiro Akiyama, earning unsuccessful title shots at Middleweight and Light-Heavyweight.

His final great run came as a 185lber in 2013, but was largely fuelled by testosterone replacement therapy – making him hugely controversial – and since the ban on TRT, he’s looked close to retirement. But for sheer longevity, he’s definitely one of the true Brazilian legends.