BY Michael Owens
Choosing the fighter of the year was a little more tricky than the fight of the year.
There has been no fighter with the sort of four-fight championship runs shown off by ‘Shogun’ Rua in 2005 or Jon Jones in 2011. There has not even been the sort of breakout, career-defining and blockbusting year for a fighter that could be compared to ‘Rampage’ Jackson in 2007 or Rashad Evans the following year.
Having said that, there have been several fighters who have great years and are worthy of significant applause. Anthony Pettis scored two first-round stoppages against outstanding competitors to get a shot at the lightweight belt and then win it. Jon Jones continued his dominance of the light heavyweight division with a pasting of Chael Sonnen and a phenomenal display of heart in the year’s best fight against Alexander Gustafsson. Urijah Faber was also worthy of consideration thanks to a four-fight win streak that surprisingly shot him right back into bantamweight title convention.
That’s not all. Demetrious Johnson established himself as the world’s premier flyweight with three defences of his title in primetime. Cain Velasquez also cemented his status as the baddest man on the planet with two crushing victories to defend his world heavyweight title with conviction.
However, the fighter that proved to be the most outstanding in 2013 has to be Vitor Belfort. Sure, he said some rather unnecessary and unsavoury things to MMA Junkie’s John Morgan at a post fight press conference, which was unfortunate. He also has the cloud of TRT hanging over his head. On the other hand, fighters have been forgiven for greater indiscretions than idiotic aggression in the past. Furthermore UFC claim to have diligently tested ‘The Phenom’ for elevated levels of testosterone and that’s good enough for me.
The most important thing to consider is that the 36-year-old essentially held his own personal KO-of-the-year competition in 2013 and knocked out three world class fighters in a row.
Like many other times in his career Vitor was in a sort of MMA limbo at the start of the year. He had gone 2-2 in his last four fights and his defeats were two thrashings at the hands of the 185 and 205 pound champions. He entered The Octagon against Michael Bisping in January with many observers doubting his ability to reclaim his former standing in either weight class or to match ‘The Count’s’ pace and stamina. If he flaked like many predicted, he would be a 35-year-old at the back of the contendership line, with a long road back to the top of either of the UFC’s middleweight or light heavyweight rankings.
He proved his doubters wrong in emphatic fashion. Bisping looked sharp in the early stages of round one, but he got nailed with a left high kick in the closing seconds that has him on the ropes. Vitor came back out with the same vigour in the second round and finished the fight with another beautiful head kick to Bisping’s temple, cemented with some devastating ground and pound. The Brazilian superstar was back in the hunt.
He followed this outstanding victory up with an even more spectacular win. Luke Rockhold was highly touted coming into this fight. He was the last Strikeforce champion and had shown his ability to dominate lesser opponents and go into deep waters with elite competitors. That really meant nothing though as he was also spectacularly obliterated. Belfort unleashed a near-perfect spinning heel kick which sent his American opponent tumbling to the canvas. tHe following ground and pound that finished the contest was frankly terrifying. The Belfort train was running at full steam by now. So much so in fact that he entered his next fight as a strong favourite. That was something no-one could have imagined in the recent past.
Dan Henderson is one of the best fighters in MMA history. He is the only man to have ever held major MMA titles in two divisions at the same time, he has pound for pound wins in three different weight classes and he comfortably beat Belfort the first time they fought way back at PRIDE 32. He had also gone his entire career without ever being knocked out in a mixed martial arts fight. A newcomer to the sport could have never guessed all of that after this fight.
With his trademark aggression turned up to eleven, Vitor wasted no time in knocking Henderson into mid air (literally) and swarming on him with ground and pound. When it looked like the American might have recovered he was put down for good with a stunning head kick that left him twitching on the mat. That was just about the pinnacle of outrageous violence in 2013.
Bisping. Rockhold. Henderson. For my money, that’s the most impressive list of scalps from the past 12 months regardless of the outcomes of the fights. Factor in the concussive footnote to each one and you’re really talking about something special. That’s why Vitor Belfort deserves the accolade of fighter of the year.
Armed with that three-fight streak culminating in the stoppage of a legend, Belfort now finds himself next in line to take on the new kid on the block at the 185 pound summit later in 2014. Chris Weidman has proved to be quite the capable ass kicker, but I find it hard to imagine betting against the new number-one contender.
