
April 25, 2020
Critica de Vitor Belfort
Gracie Magazine Ano III, N0 16
Translated by Roberto Pedreira
Instead of
punching him out as people had by that time come to expect, Vitor
decided to out-grapple Joe Charles in Ultimate Japan Super Fight in
1997. Eddie Goldman didn't like that. Vitor explained why he did what he
did.
"It's easy
to criticize others, but Eddie Goldman is connected with wrestling and
I've never heard him criticize the opponents who the wrestlers confront.
Do you remember who Mark Kerr fought? Many fights between Americans are
fake [armadas] such as Don Frye versus Mark Hall, Mark Kerr
versus [Daniel] Bobish, and [Mark] Coleman versus [Dan] Severn. My fight
was not fake. I just decided to show everyone that I know how to fight
on the ground, because many people said that I only win by boxing.
Critics always attack me. If I fight standing they say I don't know
ground. If I fight on the ground I should stand up. One week before the
fight, I stated in an interview that I would go to the ground this time.
And in my opinion my performance was good. I looked for the fight the
whole time, dominating the positions. Clearly Goldman, has a wrestler's
vision, that is, he thinks that a fight should be "ground and
pound" [colocar baixo e bater] so my fight didn't give him
what he wanted [deixou a desejar]. But my vision of vale tudo is
very far from that."
Vitor's fight
with Joe Charles can be seen here.
More interviews with Vitor Belfort on GTR
here, here,
and here.
Gracie Magazine Ano III, N0 16
was published in 1998.
(c) 2020, Roberto Pedreira. All rights
reserved (translation only).
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