Anderson Silva proved once again why he is as ruthless as a boxer as he was as an MMA fighter, with the former UFC middleweight champion knocking out former colleague Tito Ortiz in just 81 seconds.
Meanwhile, Vifor Belfort made his boxing comeback with a stunning TKO victory over Evander Holyfield, who replaced Oscar De La Hoya just days ago, with both fights taking place at the Triller Fight Club event at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Hollywood, Florida this Friday night.
The Silva vs Ortiz fight started off with Silva evading Ortiz’s offence in the corner. While Ortiz attempted to land a few good combinations on Silva, the Brazillian showed the same marvellous countering techniques, returning with a right.
Following the second offensive attempt from Ortiz, Silva decided to finish off the job and landed a vicious right hook that sent the “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” to the shadow realms, down out cold to the canvas, awarding Silva a first round KO victory at the 81 second mark.
“I’m training hard for this fight and training hard to show my respect for boxing. I continue to work everyday to show my respect to martial arts,” Silva said after the fight, “the grandmaster Bruce Lee said, ‘Be water,’ and that’s what I tried to do. I am going to go home and do more training.”
Meanwhile, Vitor Belfort also had a quick victory over Evander Holyfield. The former undisputed cruiserweight and heavyweight champion returned to the squared circle following a decade, after he was named to replace De La Hoya against Belfort.
The former UFC Light Heavyweight champion went at Holyfield right from the get go and went overpowering against the 58-year-old Holyfield, who seemingly appeared to have been slowed down due to his age.
By a minute and 49 seconds mark of the first round, Belfort landed a flurry of punches on Holyfield, with the referee stepping in and stopping the fight as Belfort was awarded a victory via technical knockout.
“You only are judged by the people you are competing against. Sometimes you have a beautiful record but you didn’t compete with the greatest,” Belfort said after the fight, “So for me to be able to compete with Holyfield and watching him…I remember I was the youngest champion, fighting two guys on the same night, Holyfield was fighting for $30 million against Mike Tyson. And we used to fight, you have to win $50,000 if you beat two guys, no weight-division, there was no organization back in the day.”
“So it’s a privilege. You know boxing has been my martial arts man, top martial arts. I love it the most. Being able to transition and being able to come here and fighting the greatest heavyweight of all times was a phenomenal opportunity for me,” Belfort added.
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