It was just one of those nights.
Long before Vitor Belfort authored an abrupt head-kick knockout over Dan Henderson in the main event of UFC Fight Night 77 on Saturday, you could feel an odd momentum building.
Well, as much momentum as a fight card can build after running until nearly 4 a.m. in its host city of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The final four bouts of the night all ended in knockouts, including Belfort’s left kick to Henderson’s face just two minutes into the first round of their trilogy fight. The ending looked eerily similar to the pair’s second meeting, when Belfort starched Henderson with a similar kick in 1:17 almost two years ago to the day and also in Brazil.
This one came with a hair-trigger but defensible stoppage from referee Mario Yamasaki that made the likely final meeting between two legends feel a tad anticlimactic. Henderson protested immediately, though after getting dropped with the kick, he appeared to go limp for a split second as Belfort followed with wild but deadly punches on the ground.
"Mario’s out there to protect us,” the 45-year-old Henderson told UFC play-by-play announcer Jon Anik in the cage when it was over. “I was aware of what was going on [but] I can completely understand [the stoppage]. I’m just disappointed in myself."
The funky ending fit the developing trend of the night—highlight-reel KOs and peculiar finishes were the norm.
Two bouts earlier, rising bantamweight contender Thomas Almeida left unconscious opponent Anthony Birchak slumped grotesquely against the base of the cage after a straight right hand. It improved Almeida’s record to 20-0, gave him four straight victories in the Octagon and enhanced his status as the new hot prospect at 135 pounds.
In the co-main event, former light heavyweight title challenger Glover Teixeira thoroughly outclassed Patrick Cummins. Teixeira battered him again and again with his customary combos—the overhand right followed by a left hook and a few uppercuts thrown for good measure—until Cummins was nearly out on his feet.
Referee Herb Dean had to save him against the fence early in the second round.
Before that, emerging lightweight threat Alex Oliveira overwhelmed Piotr Hallmann before knocking him stiff with a punch just 54 seconds before the end of the third.
The preliminaries also served up their share of notable—and notably odd—action.
Chas Skelly rebounded from a tough first round against Kevin Souza to win via rear-naked choke one minute, 56 seconds into the second round of the evening’s first televised bout. In the next fight, Clay Guida shot for an early takedown on Thiago Tavares but slammed his way directly into a guillotine choke just 39 seconds into the first.
Then there was Gleison Tibau—a fighter who has been known for long, grueling decision victories—who caught Abel Trujillo in a rear-naked choke in the first round and prompted referee Keith Peterson to step in before Trujillo tapped.
Here's video of the Tibau vs. Trujillo stoppage. Early? Justified? What do you all think? #Controversy #UFCSP https://t.co/cLwejtUzzH
— FOX Sports: UFC (@UFCONFOX) November 8, 2015
In all, eight of Fight Night 77’s 13 bouts ended in stoppages, and six of those happened in the first or second round. Even as the evening ran late—nearly 11 p.m. ET before the main event concluded—the mold of early finishes was duly set.
Before Belfort unleashed the kick, the marquee fight of the night was shaping up as an odd one, too.
Both Belfort and Henderson came out of their corners uncharacteristically cautious, especially for two highly regarded knockout artists. Henderson seemed intent to avoid the mistakes of that KO he suffered to Belfort in 2013. He was patient, throwing nothing but a few leg kicks as he waited for the 38-year-old Brazilian to come to him with one of his trademark early blitzes.
But Belfort knew what Hendo was up to and opted for exactly the same strategy.
It amounted to two minutes of staring, one deadly kick and a halfway debatable stoppage.
Still, the local crowd trumpeted Belfort’s efforts—at least the fans did so as they immediately filed for the exits, no doubt headed mostly for their beds.
As it rarely does with Belfort, however, the weirdness didn’t end with the fight.
After years of being the poster boy for MMA’s testosterone replacement therapy era, his KO over Henderson—another former TRT user—may have been primarily instructive in showing that Belfort can still kick people in the face without testosterone supplements.
But even if he no longer has TRT, at least he still has jokes.
“I’m still using TRT,” Belfort quipped after the fight, via MMA Junkie’s Steven Marrocco and Mike Bohn. “You know the meaning? True revival touch. That’s what I’m in right now. I want to thank God for giving me the strength and the ability to be who I am. I am who I am.”
Who he is, apparently, is a fighter who will carry on as long as possible. MMA Fighting's Ariel Helwani proposed a fight between Belfort and Tim Kennedy that might make sense. The Phenom himself said he’s interested in a second fight with Luke Rockhold.
That’s a weird choice, since Rockhold is already booked to be next up to fight for the UFC middleweight title. Plus, he’s another guy Belfort already knocked out with a head kick during his TRT days.
Henderson too gave no sign of wanting to hang up his gloves, despite now being just 2-6 since November 2011. In this instance, the stoppage from Yamasaki was likely just quick enough for the former Pride and Strikeforce champion to convince himself that he got jobbed. For a guy who needs little encouragement to march on, that’s probably all it will take.
And so two very long and strange careers keep on trucking.
This third fight between Belfort and Henderson was billed as a meeting of two legends, the bow on the end of the UFC’s TRT era and perhaps the capstone on two of MMA’s longest continuous tenures.
In the end, it was really just another oddball fight in a night full of them.
