What you dont know about the fight between Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort. PART 2

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"Tou dentro mermâo!" - Vitor Belfort

 

"I'm in, bro!" - Vitor Belfort

 

2nd part of http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2011/2/5/1976342/what-you-dont-know-about-this-fight-between-anderson-silva-and-vitor

Anderson's life changed drastically, in the US he was a big name, but in Brazil, nobody knew him. It was all about Vitor, Vitor, Vitor. He was already tired of hearing of Vitor. When he trained with Vitor, he schooled him, he dominated him. And Vitor is a guy that usually outclasses people in training, Vitor is a beast in training, but when he sparred with Anderson, he was schooled. Vitor striking sucked in comparison, he knew it right away. Anderson felt a mix of pitty for him, but also jealousy of him, because he was so much better than Vitor how come he wasnt getting as much credit as Vitor. The whole Brazilian media is on Anderson mind since then. Everytime you hear about Vitor Belfort, its like nobody on the media knows that there is a guy named Anderson Silva that is considered outside as the best pound for pound. 

 

Anderson goes to the press conferences and get buttered/licked by everyone and then he goes to Brazil he has to watch Vitor Belfort being praised, receiving all the attention. People like Vitor, Vitor is popular in Brazil, like I said, he defined a generation, he performed oral sex on Joana Prado's feet live on television for millions of people, every guy is jealous of him. 

You have to understand Andersons point of view. In his mind, he is a better fighter than Vitor Belfort (and he is, there is no doubt about it), but Vitor Belfort is the guy that had everything. Anderson thinks Vitor does not deserve the praise/attention on the media, in fact, thats pisses him off. How come "I am not the center?" "How come I am not in his place?". In the time Vitor trained with Anderson, he still havent found a closure for his sister problem and Anderson let goes of his initial negative feelings towards Belfort and empathized with him, because in his eyes Vitor was weakened. Anderson felt very good for being able to "help" a guy like Belfort, he felt good about Belfort shitty situation and felt like "its a wounded animal, let me help you". But it wasnt sincere. It was like someone rejoicing unconsciously because from his standpoint, the tabbles had turned. 

Vitor on the other hand, didnt even thought about that, not even realized what was going on with Anderson and his point of view. Vitor kept to himself, Vitor didnt bowed down to Anderson's helping hand. Its not that he tried to look tought either. Its just that Vitor didnt gave a shit about Anderson from the beggining. Vitor never aknowledged Anderson like Anderson wanted too. This frustrated Anderson. Vitor was always a protagonist kind of guy, he is alone, leader of himself, no allegiance to noone, alpha male kind of thing. Not because he tries to be like that to impress other people, its just that in his eyes/point of view, he simply KNOWS of his potential. He KNOWS what he can do, how superior he is. Off course he respects Anderson, but its in a formal way. "Yeah, he is very good", but its not like bowns down in a way that puts him in an inferior position. "This guy is very good, but if he stands in my way he is going to get it". 

Vitor didnt actually betrayed Anderson. Anderson never did anything for Vitor. Vitor never aknowledged him. Vitor treated him just like another dude. Whenever Vitor got the media spotlight, he would always keep it for himself, not the kind of guy who would go out of his way to praise other people like Anderson would go to talk about Minotauro.

Everywhere Vitor goes, he goes to improve himself. He doesnt go to help other people. If other people get helped, good, but he doesnt feel like he owns them more than what he actually gives them by his presence at the time they trained. This is hard for a lot of people to understand in Brazil. Vitor takes it in an informal "Im a professional" way. Whereas other people want more than that.

At this point you have to understand Anderson's point of view. He was already a top fighter in 2003, he already knew inside himself of his potential. He had 3 years of Chute Box top training/sparring and some could say he was in his peak since then.

At this point, after not being able to stand Rudimar, he sees himself forced to leave and start over, ending up finding events to fight in the ass of the world in Brazil, felt very depressed, felt like quitting. It was at the point of his life that a guy like Nogueira cames and save the day. Nogueira did it to Anderson, and many many other fighters and he still does it. He gave Anderson his hand, he took him under his wing, he taught him jiu jitsu straight from the source (Nogueira is like 3rd/4th generation from Brazilian Top Team). The jiujitsu he had learned on Chute Boxe couldnt compare. Anderson Striking was already top, and he started to get a ground game to go with it. 
At this point Nogueira wasnt at Brazilian Top Team and Anderson wasnt on Chute Boxe, so one could say it was their "marriage" that started to melt the rivalries (despite Anderson having fought Luis Azeredo in 2001).

Basically, you have to understand the history, the ups and downs, how everything went, what was their situation at the time.

Vitor has nothing against Anderson, he doesnt care about Anderson.
Where Anderson feels strongly against Vitor, it has nothing to do with "Betrayal" from the time they trained together. Its only in Anderson's view that just training a few times together would hinder a fight. At a certain point, when Anderson found himself, and Vitor was there in the shit, that Anderson felt superior thus he could somehow accept consider Vitor a pet or something. Because everything was right on his life, he thinks that that status quo should remain, like him being the champion of his weight class and his happy friends supporting him in the middle.

So when Belfort gets out of the shit, near 2007, gets momentum and finally reach his door, he feels like "How dare you to challenge me?"
Vitor nomad/protagonist/professional way of being clashes with Anderson "me and my boys are gonna rule this" mentality. Vitor was never his boy. "Vitor was never my friend". It means Vitor never aknowledged/bowed down to him even when Vitor was on the shit and he was on the top. 

But thats only Anderson way of seing things. Vitor being the number 1 on Brazil media, while Anderson despite being praised left and right as the P4P being completelly shadowed by Belfort (Anderson popularity/appearances on media started to increase here since his last 2-3 fights, but still nowhere near Belfort). So to Anderson, another thing that pisses him off, is knowing that he is better fighter than Vitor, yet he does not get the credit he thinks he deserve in comparison with Vitor. Another thing relates to how always Vitor was on the spotlight and had the easy road, good family, money, in any way you can evaluate Vitor, the guy had everything and Anderson is the type of person that does get jealous. Deep inside Anderson he knows where he came from, what he had to do to get where he is, and he didnt had anything Vitor had. To Anderson, he is more deserving. He cant stand Vitor having all those things, the media praise and still comming to CHALLENGE HIM, trying to take his glory, etc. 

Anderson is like "Im going to kill you. Im going to put you in your place. Im going to show the world who is the one who deserves the praise." Its the opportunity of his life, because Vitor Belfort brings to the bet tabble the glory/media in Brazil. If Anderson defeats Vitor, he will have to be seen as a superior fighter, he will have to get the edge, top attention. Something he still does not have. 

Something he wants badly. And losing to Belfort will be worse than losing to anybody else, because Belfort is everything he ressents from other people, based on the things he didnt had, the life he lead, his difficulties, etc. Vitor, on the otherside is completelly oblivious of Anderson's feelings. He is like "What is Andersons problem, he seems so angry... weird.. I dont get it."

Off course Anderson wont say these things openly to the media. What he trully feels like I just said. He tries hard to be "cool" (like Belfort), trying to downplay the importance of this fight to himself, trying to make it look like just another fight. He creates a mask, to hide his hideous emotions/feelings, to hide that he is insecure. To try not to look pathetic, ridiculous, with low motivations, but inside, he just is like that. He will probably devastate Vitor like you never seen before. Its like "payback time motherfucker". If he can embarass and humiliate Belfort worse than he did to Maia, he will. Its one of these fights that only if Anderson wins, he will be able to get over Belfort (Because he is again in a position of superiority) and will still roleplay hard that "its just another fight and he just did his job and try to give a show to the fans". But deep inside he will be grinning, because he was victorious atlast.

Im just a dude following MMA on the internet that couldnt stand seing people so clueless about what is going on. This fight has major motivations and historic proportions, most of you americans, or people who are not following MMA for long, and had no access to the info only brazilians have from forums (and posts from people who train, and stuff that dont get on the vent), or people who have no ability to logically correlate facts or understand behaviours and psychology. Thats why Im giving this information, because knowing this will help you savour the fight and analyse the aparently unexplainable behaviour of Anderson/Vitor. But make no mistake, its very personal, its not another fight.

Poll

Seeing the new motivations of both fighters, who do you think is more focused on being the UFC MW Champion come Feb. 6th?

72%

Anderson Silva

271 votes

27%

Vitor Belfort

101 votes

372 votes | Poll has closed