Vitor Belfort is known for his unbelievably fast hands, his boxing, and his power, all of which are skills that Rich Franklin will have to be wary of when the two collide at UFC 103. But his karate?
Guess is that you're probably wondering if Belfort's ever even dabbled in karate. Well, he's actually done much more than just dabble, according to a Sherdog report.
“I trained karate in 2001 to fight Heath Herring,” said Belfort. “People have a lot of respect for boxing and wrestling, but I’ve always had the vision of bringing things that are not being used in the sport, like I did with boxing. After that, I contacted Lyoto (Machida). We trained together a couple of times in Rio de Janeiro, and I felt his timing was from karate, so I started to get interested in karate again. Of course, I made some adaptations, as I combined karate with my boxing game. I’m adding a couple of nice things from Shotokan to my game.”
In fact, Belfort has done some extensive training with Jayme Sandall, one of the best Shotokan fighters in Brazil along with the Machidas, coming into UFC 103. So get ready for a wider stance and a lot of in and out kind of action, people. Vitor Belfort has gone traditional!
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