Henderson experiences deja vu in loss to Belfort
Dan Henderson entered his UFC Fight Night 77 main event bout against Vitor Belfort early Sunday hoping to avenge a first-round knockout loss in 2013 suffered when Belfort connected with a head kick.
Instead, Henderson suffered an almost identical fate in the middleweight bout in Sao Paulo.
Belfort stunned Henderson with a left kick to the head and knocked him to the ground before finishing him off with a series of punches at 2:07 of the opening round.
“I screwed up. That´s my quote for you,” Henderson said. “I screwed up.”
Henderson ducked right into the kick and Belfort took full advantage, recording his UFC-record 12th career knockout in the organization. He broke the mark he previously shared with former middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
The finishing shot came after an opening two minutes that featured very little action.
“My strategy from the start was to start slow. He was expecting an intense Vitor from the beginning, so I waited for the right moment, had patience,” Belfort said. “That was my mistake in my last fight, I did not have patience, and I did now.”
It was the fourth win in five fights for Belfort, who was coming off a title loss to middleweight champion Chris Weidman in May. His last win, however, was the knockout of Henderson in 2013.
Belfort did not compete in 2014.
Henderson has lost three of his last four fights and six of eight.
Belfort’s two knockout victories avenged a 2006 Henderson victory on a Pride Fighting Championships card.
Also on Sunday’s card, Glover Teixeira knocked out Patrick Cummins in the second round of a light heavyweight bout and Brazilian bantamweight phenom Thomas Almeida remained undefeated with a first-round knockout of Anthony Birchak.
“I was prepared, trained a lot, and this bout had something special: It was in Sao Paulo, my hometown,” Almeida said after recording his 14th knockout in his last 15 fights, including three of four since signing with the UFC. “It gave me a greater motivation. I put pressure on myself, and I’m really happy and thrilled for having people in my team that I love and helped me to win.”
Featherweight Thiago Tavares needed just 39 seconds to submit Clay Guida.
Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj
