UFC stars haven’t had a lot of crossover success in boxing matches of late. However Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort flipped the script on Saturday night, turning in vintage performances in 1st round KO victories.
Silva, once considered the best pound for pound fighter on the planet, knocked out Tito Ortiz a mere 1min 21sec into their bout. Though he’s now 46 years old, Silva has strung together consecutive victories in the boxing ring and doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. After defeating former world champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., “The Spider” agreed to an undercard bout on the Belfort vs. Holyfield PPV in Hollywood, Florida.
Though Ortiz appeared to have the advantage early, trapping Silva in a corner, Anderson flashed his one punch knockout power that made him such a dangerous opponent in the octagon and dropped the former Light Heavyweight UFC champion with a hard right. Ortiz went to the canvas in a heap and appeared to have lost consciousness.
In the main event of the evening, Vitor Belfort (44) stopped former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield (58) 1min49sec into their bout. Holyfield, who hasn’t fought professionally since 2011, looked completely out of sorts from the opening bell and offered little resistance to Belfort’s flurry of punches.
To his credit, Holyfield accepted the bout on only 8 days notice after Belfort’s original opponent (Oscar De La Hoya) tested positive for COVID. However, given the lacklustre performance and his advanced age, even the most ardent of Holyfield fans has to hope that Saturday was the last time we’ll see the former champion inside the ring. The Belfort vs. Holyfield fight was not a sanctioned event, and likely will not count towards either fighter’s professional record.
Although no one will be confusing Saturday’s PPV for high level boxing anytime soon, the sport has embraced “gimmicks” like this at an increasing rate over the past year. Former champions, past their prime UFC stars, YouTubers, and TikTok stars are just some of the sideshows who have been trotted out to the ring recently. Yet fans have gobbled up the product to the tune of hundreds of thousands of PPV buys each time, meaning these kinds of events are likely to become even more common in the months to come.
The undercard also saw Jono Carroll defeat Andy Vences via majority decision, David Haye defeat Joe Fournier via unanimous decision, Anthony Chavez and Diuhl Olguin fight to a majority draw, and Eliezer Silva defeat Terry Roscoe via unanimous decision.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner