Vitor Belfort Returns To The UFC
by Robert Sargent
With the collapse of Affliction and the poor fan reaction to the original UFC 103 main event, the Ultimate Fighting Championship has re-signed former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Vitor "The Phenom" Belfort to face Rich "Ace" Franklin.
The fight will headline UFC 103 in place of the originally scheduled main event rematch between Franklin and Dan "Hendo" Henderson, and will be contested at 195 pounds.
This is an excellent decision on the part of the UFC, as the Henderson vs Franklin rematch made absolutely no sense whatsoever. Henderson will continue to compete in the middleweight division and has been officially announced as the next challenger for UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson "The Spider" Silva after Silva's upcoming light heavyweight bout with Forrest Griffin.
Belfort (18-8-0) is widely regarded as having the fastest hands of anyone in MMA and he quickly became a feared opponent in the early days of the UFC with lightning-fast knockouts, including a 44-second blitzing of "The Axe Murderer" Wanderlei Silva. He later split his time between PRIDE and the UFC and fared well in both promotions. Belfort captured the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship from Randy "The Natural" Couture in the second fight of their trilogy at UFC 46.
Franklin (25-4-0, 1 NC) will no longer be preparing for an opponent who tends to only throw one power punch at a time (Henderson), and will now have to figure out a strategy to counter the incredibly quick combinations from Belfort. Factor in that Belfort also possesses serious knockout power and has won three of his last four fights by KO, and Franklin will be in for one of the toughest fights of his career.
Whereas Franklin normally prefers to stand and trade strikes with his opponents, that will likely prove to be a crucial error against Belfort, who is much faster and more explosive than Franklin. Belfort has the ability to knock Franklin out with a single strike - or many strikes in combination - but it is unlikely that Franklin can win this bout by anything other than a decision.
Having said that, it would serve Franklin well to try to take the fight to the ground in order to avoid Belfort's strikes. If Franklin can tire Belfort out with constant pressure, he can ruin the Brazilian's highly-anticipated return to the UFC. Either way, this is sure to be a great fight.
UFC 103 takes place on September 19th at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.
