The Uncrowned King | Vitor Belfort

The year is 1997. Barely anyone knows who or what the UFC is. A young Brazilian man with the face of a 19 year old and the physique of Mark Kerr enters the cage at UFC 12. Who is this teenage fighter, you might ask? With Carlson Gracie Jiu Jitsu behind him, enter "The Phenom", Vitor Belfort. On this seminal night, Belfort made short work of both Tra Telligman and Scott Ferrozzo in a total of exactly two minutes. These two wins earned him The UFC Heavyweight Tournament Championship belt, and symbolized the arrival of a man who would go on to leave his mark in the sport of MMA. My love for Vitor started back in 2008 when I saw his knockout of Terry Martin in Affliction. I had seen him fight before, but that night, he would become one of my favorite fighters (second to only Baby Jay). Never before (or really after) had I witnessed a middleweight move or strike quite like him. As fans we are all aware of his weaknesses but in his prime (which may be different time periods depending on who you ask) - Belfort was one of the most feared strikers of his time, and one of the absolute best fighters walking the planet for many years. He finished his career with an overall record of 26-14-1. A record as deceptive as our previous entry, Hendo, who also exclusively fought top guys. Vitor Belfort achieved a stoppage in 21 out of his 26 wins, for a whopping 80 percent finishing rate. Of those 21 finishes, 18 of them were knockouts, giving him a 69 percent knockout rate. That is pretty remarkable for a fighter at the elite level of this sport. Here are some of his notable wins:

Randy Couture

Wanderlei Silva

Heath Herring

Marvin Eastman

Matt Lindland

Nate Marquardt

Dan Henderson x2

Luke Rockhold

Yoshihiro Akiyama

Michael Bisping

Anthony Johnson

Today, we start with his first win over a ranked competitor, which came just six fights in his career. On October 16, 1998, Belfort faced fellow Brazilian, a young and rising Wanderlei Silva. Something of note is that when this even took place, there were only two weight classes in the UFC. One was heavyweight, which was for fighters weighing 200 pounds and over. The other was Middleweight (known as lightweight up until UFC 14), which was for fighers weighing in at a maximum of 199 pounds. This matchup took place at middleweight.