Henderson won a decision over Belfort during their days fighting for Pride Fighting Championships, while Belfort knocked Henderson out in their previous UFC fight, ensuring Saturday night’s victor would be granted bragging rights when he is one day sitting around the campfire with his grandchildren.
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>In what was nearly an identical finish to their 2013 bout, Vitor Belfort stopped Dan Henderson on Saturday night at UFC Fight Night 77 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
With just a couple of winks away from the Sau Paulo card, now is the time to dust off the crystal ball and predict who will get the W and who will go back to the drawing board. Cummins (8-2) was coming off a win over Rafael Cavalcante at UFC 190 in August. Cummins is a one dimensional fighter that uses wrestling and body control to win. Magomedov established himself as the aggressor in the second round, hurting Burns at one point and looking as though he had Burns out on his feet, but the Brazilian would not be denied.
Dana White isn’t wrong with his assertion that we are seeing the brightest star in UFC continue his rise to the very top.
Once the smoke clears, Alex Oliveira will get his hand raised after he breaks down Piotr Hallmann with crisp strikes. The way I see this fight happening is that Hallmann will press Oliveira against the fence and use his clinch and takedowns, which could be Hallmann’s fight to lose.
That said, this fight wasn’t defined just by its brutality. In a stunning final act, Almeida unleashed an assault of facial hits on a visibly weakened Birchak to claim the win, and maintain his winning record in uncompromising fashion. Late in the first round, Almeida uncorked a combination featuring a spinning back elbow and a flurry of left and right hooks that separated Birchak from his consciousness, earning him the knockout victory at 4:22 in the first.
Patrick Cummins aimed for takedowns and any chance possible to showcase his ground game against Glover Teixeira, which became clear as Cummins successfully landed takedowns at will on the former light-heavyweight title contender throughout the first round.
The action was mixed in their first two meetings. Henderson shocked the world when he upset Tim Boetsch earlier this year, but lightning will not strike twice as Belfort swarms on Henderson with strikes to get the early TKO finish.
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Glover Teixeira put a stop to his bout with Pat Cummings in round two. After coming up short against champion Chris Weidman back in May, the 38-year-old will no doubt have reemerged at the top of the weight bracket following the win over “Hendo”.
