This past weekend presented mixed martial arts (MMA) fans with another highlight reel knockout that will live on in infamy.
To open up the UFC 224 pay-per-view (PPV) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, former light heavyweight champions Vitor Belfort and Lyoto Machida clashed in a battle featuring two of the biggest legends the sport has ever seen.
In the first round both men were very reluctant to get any shots off, instead choosing to play it safe and feel their opponent out early on. The second round was a much different story.
Moments into the second round, Machida unleashed a hellacious front kick to the face that rendered The Phenom unconscious and put an unceremonious end to his over 20-year MMA career.
Machida was very respectful after the knockout, immediately going to both knees and watching the medical staff tend to Belfort instead of celebrating moronically. After the fight Belfort announced his retirement from MMA.
Lyoto decided to call-out former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping, who has also been teasing retirement for the past several months since losing a first round knockout to Kelvin Gastelum.
Bisping recently took to his podcast, Believe You Me, to offer up his thoughts on all the action that took place in Brazil over the weekend. He had some very choiced words for the Belfort vs. Machida match-up as well.
The Count said it was very satisfying to see Belfort get knocked out the way he did, as he considers his career to be built off of cheating. He also holds a grudge over Belfort for impairing his eyeball when they fought several years back.
Bisping's eye hasn't been right since that fight. Here's what he had to say (quotes via MMA Mania):
“It’s very satisfying to see him lose if I’m honest. I don’t care for the guy. I think he’s built a career off being a cheat. The amount of insane steroids over his life, over his career, is evident to see.
"I mean you go back and look at his early career, the guy was insanely jacked.
"When we fought he was insanely jacked, and now you look at him and he looks like a fucking beat up old man. And he’s getting knocked out like so and performing like so.
"When he was juiced out of his mind, just fucking tearing through everybody and then he has the hypocrisy to go out and talk about being a good person and this and that. The guy’s a cheat, the guy has no honor.
"I would love to have been the person to do that, but it’s kind of still enjoyable to see him get what he deserves because he’s gone out and done that too many a people and caused injuries.
"He fucked up my eyeball, he’s the one to blame for that, so yeah. God bless Machida, job well done.”
What are your thoughts on Bisping saying he was satisfied with the way Belfort was knocked out by Machida? Do you think that Bisping will take on more fight before he retires himself? And do you think that fight could be against Machida? Let us know your thoughts on the matter in the comments section below!
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