Vitor Belfort Stops Michael Bisping

A potential title challenger to Anderson Silva’s crown is no more. Vitor Belfort landed a huge high kick to knock Bisping down to the canvas. A few extra punches and the referee calls it off to award the Brazilian the victory. Was the stoppage a bit premature? Perhaps. Was it likely that Bisping would recover? I don’t think so.

As high as Bisping goes in the rankings and as his career progresses, his chin will always be a serious issue. He just will not be able to handle a powerful strike. It’s unfortunate since Bisping has improved a lot since his UFC debut in the Summer of 2006. His takedown defense is legitimately great (yes, great!) and his striking, while not powerful by any means, is very solid.

It’s a bit of a shame that it doesn’t look like he’ll be fighting for the gold in his career. We’ve seen worse fighters challenge for the UFC title in recent times like Thales Leites or Dan Hardy (in a weightclass below). Bisping’s best chance at a crack at the strap is that a lot of injuries or suspensions all happen simultaneously. It seems like he’ll be destined to be a supporting character actor as opposed to a leading man.

As for Vitor Belfort, his career goes on and on, and it’s pretty remarkable. He’s had ups and downs, tragedies and triumphs. But he’s still here and he just beat a top ten middleweight. Does he deserve a title shot? I don’t think so, in the last two years he lost championship fights to Anderson Silva and Jon Jones. But he deserves a huge high-profile fight. He’s earned that much.