Vitor Belfort’s Former Trainer Claims He Has Chances to Win in First 2 Rounds

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The shift of opponent from a smaller foe to a much larger one has many observers expecting Vitor Belfort will struggle if he does not land an early knockout.

In a weekend without a Ultimate Fighting Championship event, there may not be much better for Brazilian fight fans than seeing two legends in action again. It does not matter to them that it’s under boxing rules. The broadcast will air live on Combate in Brazil. The show will feature Belfort in the main event facing the heavyweight legend Evander Holyfield, while Anderson Silva will box Tito Ortiz in the co-headliner. To make it even more interesting for the Brazilian audience, the promoters hired Anitta, a popular young Brazilian singer, who will perform with stars like Snoop Dogg and Lunay.

To discuss the main attraction, Sherdog spoke to one of the Belfort’s first boxing trainers, Ulysses Pereira. The coach trained “The Phenom” for his first fight with Randy Couture, when Belfort captured the light heavyweight belt at UFC 46 in 2004. According to Pereira, the ex-UFC star will have a much tougher task against Holyfield than he would have against Oscar De La Hoya.

“No doubt the level of the challenge has been raised,” Pereira remarked. “Holyfield is a natural heavyweight with lots of knockout power, who fought in boxing rules all his life. Fifty-seven fights [with] 44 victories, 29 via knockout. Belfort had four moments in boxing during his whole career, [including] three as amateur and only one as professional.”

With the experience of having trained Belfort both in boxing and MMA, Pereira believes that his former pupil will have better chances in the beginning of the fight.

“Holyfield has been training for a possible third fight with Tyson and I got really impressed by his shape in some video I saw in the internet, but of course the age has some weight,” the coach admitted. “He is 14 years older than Belfort, who may surprise with his speed and strong hands. I would say that Belfort has chances in two first rounds, but if the fight goes further, Evander’s longer experience in boxing must count. As we could see in his fight with Tyson, he is very good at using his boxing technique to frustrate heavy punchers.”

Pereira went on to clarify a controversial statement from Belfort, who claimed that he almost represented Brazil in the Olympics.

“That’s not exactly what happened,” Pereira explained. “Belfort participated in Open games, then he fought against a guy from Puerto Rico in the ‘Olympic Summer Festival,’ an event produced in a big arena in Copacabana Beach in January 1998. After that, he had to [take] three sparring matches against Marcelino, who used to be the number one of that division in Brazil. Me, Joao and Paco, the technical commission on the national team, [had] decided that if Belfort beat Marcelino in three sparring matches, he would represent Brazil in pre-Olympic games. But Belfort twisted the knee in the very first sparring and Marcelino got the place. In the sequence, Marcelino lost in pre-Olympic and was not able to go to the Olympic games. So, it’s not true Belfort ‘almost’ represented Brazil in the Olympics.”

The trainer then switched gears to another key matchup on the Triller Fight Club show, which comes between Anderson Silva and Tito Ortiz. An admitted fan of “The Spider,” Pereira believes Silva has the best boxing technique in MMA, and he expects that Silva will land a knockout blow before the final bell.

“Anderson is a spectacular fighter,” Pereira gushed. “His last fight made it look like [Julio] Cesar Chavez Jr. was an MMA fighter and he was a boxing professional. His level is way above Ortiz, but of course Tito is a former UFC champion with heavy hands and it has to be considered. But, if nothing abnormal happens, I see Anderson winning via TKO before the eighth round.”

Being the only Brazilian trainer from the state of Para who coached the Brazilian national boxing team in two Olympic cycles – Atlanta in 1996, and Sydney in 2000 – Pereira is always looked at by the MMA talents from the area. That is exactly what led him to work one of his star pupils, Lyoto Machida, back in 2004.

“Lyoto was starting to train with me, and [Chute Boxe founder] Rudimar Fedrigo invited me to train Wanderlei [Silva] and ‘Shogun’ [Rua] for Pride GP in 2005, and I asked him to take Lyoto as [a] sparring [partner] with me to Curitiba. Coincidence or not, Lyoto and ‘Shogun’ fought twice, four years later, for the UFC light heavyweight title,” Pereira remarked.

"Of course, we would never imagine it could happen,” Pereira noted. “By that time, Chute Boxe was a very closed team for ‘outside’ fighters, they only accepted Lyoto because I requested. But that’s what sport is all about. I’m very proud to see two of my students fighting to see who was the best in the world by that moment.”

Machida, of course, was not the only student from his homeland that Pereira believed in. Another fighter, current UFC fan-favorite Michel Pereira, is one competitor the coach feels deserves a lot of attention.

"Michel ‘Demolidor’ Pereira is a very special guy who learns really fast,” Pereira made sure to mention. “I’m just waiting for the UFC to decide his next opponent to fly to Vegas and help him to his next camp. With all the experience I have training MMA fighters, I would advise any welterweight to keep an eye on him.”