Former UFC fighters Vitor "The Phenom" Belfort and Terry Martin battled it out this past Saturday at the Affliction: "Banned" event. It was a tough bout for both men as they exchanged various blows throughout most of the first round. It was at the start of the round where Belfort describes the breaking of his hand.
At the end of the round, his corner urged him to finish the fight once and for all. Belfort knew it wouldn’t be easy to put away the very aggressive Martin with a broken hand, but he held the pain in and kept the fight going. With just about two minutes remaining in the second round, the Phenom was able to knee Martin to the face and followed up with a huge upper-cut that dropped Martin to the mat for good.
Here’s a snip from Belfort as he discusses his fight with Martin and explains how he broke his hand:
"The first punch I threw. It was a straight left. I knew right away it broke. But I had to keep going. I couldn’t throw my combinations I had worked on. Coach Tompkins was yelling at me to throw my combos. At the end of the first round I went back to the corner and Tompkins was yelling at me, ‘Why don’t you throw your combos?’ I said, ‘My hand is broken’. He said, ‘Ok’ and Randy said, ‘Just go first. Go for it and finish the fight’.
I said to myself, ‘Ok, I’ll do that’. It was great chemistry in the corner. I went out and I did what they said. I was looking to land a big shot and get it over with. It’s my left hand, which is my power hand. I went out and threw the kick at Terry. When he caught my kick I let him take me down so I could soften him up with the elbows. I knew I could get back to my feet when I needed to. Then I set him up for the knee. After that I was able to pick his head up with the uppercut and end it with the straight left.
(Belfort’s Hand Broke In…)Two places. At the base of my thumb and at the base of the index finger. I don’t need surgery. The doctor says 4 weeks in the brace and then I will be OK."
(props to xtremecouture)
