Road to the title shot: Vitor Belfort

Vitor Belfort vs Luke Rockhold

Despite coming on with a dominant win over Bisping, Vitor was once again an underdog against the last Strikeforce MW champion Luke Rockhold who was making his UFC debut. Odds were stacked against Vitor as he was facing a younger, faster & longer fighter in Luke Rockhold. This fight was straight away stipulated with title implication thus making it a must win for both of them.

After they touched gloves, they both started out circling, immediately Vitor attempted a wheel kick but misses. Luke shoots for a takedown and gets stuffed. Vitor moved forward and gets in a couple shots until he pushes Rockhold to the cage.

Then both get decent offence against each other without doing any substantial damage until Vitor cached Rockhold with a picture perfect wheel kick in the face that lands flush which he never saw Coming and it dropped Rockhold.

Vitor followed up the kick with ground and pound and ends the fight quickly and made it two in a row with head kick knockouts. Vitor made a huge statement finishing Rockhold like that in the first round & made everyone notice that he is coming for the belt.

Vitor Belfort vs Dan Henderson 2

Belfort had revenge on his mind during his second bout against Henderson

In this rematch Vitor not only was motivated to take revenge of his loss in their first encounter but he was also motivated to establish himself as true no. 1 contender as well for the 185-pound title, despite this fight took place at 205-pound weight class. Finally, Vitor received the respect of odds maker that he rightly deserved, as he was the favorite coming into this rematch against his fellow legendary fighter.

There were no strikes a minute into the fight as both fighters were feeling out each other’s power and movement, but as soon as Hendo swarms towards Belfort and gets dropped by a left hook. Belfort pursued with an onslaught of ground-and-pound, but Hendo somehow survived the attack and looked to find his footing against the cage before being struck with a fight-ending head kick.

This was first time Dan Henderson was stopped due to strikes in his long illustrious career and one more feather was added in the cap of Vitor Belfort as he entered the record books with three head kick knockouts. Vitor once again made a statement and cleared all doubts that he is the next title challenger for the UFC MW championship belt.