Belfort criticized for back of the head blows

Vitor Belfort vs Yoshihiro Akiyama, UFC 133:

Vitor Belfort vs Rich Franklin, UFC 103:

In his triumphant return to the Octagon against Rich Franklin back at UFC 103, Vitor Belfort finished former UFC champion Rich Franklin, landing a series of illegal or quasi legal punches.

Belfort, again last night, showed no concern for his grounded opponent. Bloody Elbow’s Brent Brookhouse makes a strong point that Akiyama could have avoided the issue by not being knocked down on his face. I agree that Belfort was well on his way to victory – legitimately. That said, a fighter shouldn’t have to worry about defending against illegal techniques. The back of the head is off limits and officials, like it or not, are going to have to start enforcing the rules.

It’s hard for linebackers to pull up once the quarterback has let go of the ball – but they do it. It’s hard for boxers not to land that one extra shot after the bell rings – but we expect them to. In the real world, we ask our soldiers to uphold certain standards of conduct – even in life or death circumstances.

The rules are in place to protect fighters. Ignoring them, even for what seems like a good reason, is the slippery slope to disaster.

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