For Gastelum and Belfort, 2 lessons of fight game told from different ends of same road

There’s nothing like getting punched in the face by a 25-year-old to convince a middle-aged man to seek his fortune elsewhere. This is apparently true even for an uncommonly enthusiastic middle-aged man such as Vitor Belfort. After the left hands that Kelvin Gastelum pasted him with, it’s not too difficult to understand why.

Belfort’s latest stint as a headliner in his home country lasted just under four minutes in Fortaleza, Ceara, Brazil, on Saturday at UFC Fight Night 106. He spent roughly a quarter of that time on his back, trying and mostly failing to avoid the youthful wrath of a guy who was still working on learning the alphabet back when Belfort started his pro career.

After the first-round TKO loss in the FS1-televised headliner, Belfort (25-14 MMA, 14-10 UFC) told us he is likely done. You know, after the next one. And only assuming that the UFC won’t take him up on his offer to spearhead a promotion within the promotion, one strictly for old-timers who want to keep fighting but aren’t crazy about being concussed by kids.

As for those kids, Gastelum (14-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC) apparently had so much fun beating up one Brazilian legend that he used his mic time to ask for seconds, calling out former UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva for his next fight.

It’s a tricky business, going hunting for legends that way. On one hand, yes, pummeling a man with a big name is a proven way to add some polish to your resume as a fighter. On the other, when you truck the MMA version of a senior citizen and then follow that up by asking for someone even older, you risk looking like the opportunistic predator who’s merely scanning the herd for the aged and infirm rather than gunning for a real challenge.

Maybe it’s smart. Gastelum is a somewhat reluctant middleweight to begin with, and the top of the division is currently overcrowded with big, scary men willing to do terrible things to people in exchange for 10 pounds of leather and gold. That’s a pool you might want to ease into, and knocking off the older, slower versions of once-great fighters in a series of headlining bouts is pretty good work if you can get it.

It’s also a triumph tinged with a little bit of sadness, especially for those of us old enough to remember when Belfort was the boy wonder with “no known weaknesses.” Now he’s forced to fight these young whippersnappers just to stay relevant, all while pleading for a chance to face someone in his own age group, if only to avoid figuring out what the rest of his life is going to look like.

It’s been a hell of a career for Belfort, and one that has often mirrored the ebbs and flows of MMA itself. He started back when gloves were optional and bouts came in single-night bunches. He thrived under questionable (and at times non-existent) anti-doping measures, then slipped in the back door of the testosterone-replacement-therapy (TRT) age just long enough to help spoil the party for everyone. He inhabited different weight classes, different physiques, different eras. You could almost cut him open and read the whole history of MMA, one sedimentary layer at a time.

It’s bound to make for a complicated legacy when it’s all over, and one way or another it’s bound to be over soon. Taking the big picture approach, the loss to Gastelum isn’t so much an earth-shattering failure as another painful step in a long journey.

Belfort took it with dignity, too. At least as much as is possible. He got knocked out and then hung around to address the fans, explaining that it was a bad night all around for him, but that’s how it goes sometimes.

“The sport is this way,” Belfort said at the post-event press conference.

He should know, as long as he’s been at it. Gastelum’s education on the matter is still just beginning, and the lessons likely look very different from where he’s standing.

Don’t worry, though. You stick around long enough, and you’re bound to learn the same lessons your predecessors did. Even if it takes a few good beatings to make it stick.

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 106, check out the UFC Events section of the site.