''UFC Fight Night: Belfort vs. Henderson 3'' (also known as ''UFC Fight Night 77'') was a

mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, incor ...

event held on November 7, 2015, at the

Ginásio do Ibirapuera Ginásio do Ibirapuera (officially named Ginásio Estadual Geraldo José de Almeida)
is an São Paulo, Brazil SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Saco Transportation Center (station code SAO), a train station in Saco, Maine, U.S. ...

Background

The event was the fourth held in

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaW ...

following UFC Ultimate Brazil (1998), UFC on FX: Belfort vs. Bisping (2013) and The Ultimate Fighter Brazil 3 Finale: Miocic vs. Maldonado (2014) and the twenty-fourth overall event to be held in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. The event was headlined by a middleweight trilogy bout between longtime multi-divisional contenders and champions

Vitor Belfort Vítor Vieira Belfort (; born 1 April 1977) is a Brazilian mixed martial artist who competes in the Heavyweight and Middleweight divisions. Belfort previously competed for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he fought in the Heavywe ...

and

Dan Henderson Daniel Jeffery Henderson (born August 24, 1970) is an American retired mixed martial artist and Olympic wrestler, who last competed as a middleweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He was the last Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champi ...

. Henderson defeated Belfort in their first encounter in 2006 at

Pride 32 ''Pride 32: The Real Deal'' was a mixed martial arts event and was held by the Pride Fighting Championships. The event took place on October 21, 2006, at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Background This was the first Pride event t ...

via unanimous decision. Belfort defeated Henderson in their second encounter in 2013 at UFC Fight Night: Belfort vs. Henderson 2 via first round knockout.

Tom Lawlor Thomas Joseph Lawlor (born May 15, 1983) is an American professional wrestler, retired mixed martial artist and podcast host. He is best known for his time in Major League Wrestling (MLW), where he was a former one-time MLW World Heavyweight Cham ...

was expected to face

Fábio Maldonado Fábio Rogério Maldonado (born 17 March 1980) is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist and boxer currently competing in the light heavyweight division of Fight Nights Global. A professional MMA competitor since 2000, he has also ...

at this event. However, Lawlor was forced to pull out due to injury and was replaced by

The Ultimate Fighter 19 ''The Ultimate Fighter: Team Edgar vs. Team Penn'' (also known as ''The Ultimate Fighter 19'') is the nineteenth U.S.-based installment of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)-produced reality television series ''The Ultimate Fighter''. The ...

light heavyweight winner Corey Anderson. On December 4, it was announced that

Gleison Tibau Janigleison Herculano Alves, better known as Gleison Tibau (; born July 10, 1983) is a Brazilian mixed martial artist currently competing in the Lightweight division of Professional Fighters League. A professional since 1999, he has competed for ...

was "provisionally suspended" by the

United States Anti-Doping Agency The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA, ) is a non-profit, non-governmental 501(c)(3) organization and the national anti- doping organization (NADO) for the United States. To protect clean competition and the integrity of sport and prevent ...

(USADA) due to a potential failed out-of-competition drug test. On December 23, a second potential failed drug test, this time in-competition, was also announced. On February 16, Tibau announced he will drop his appeal and face the minimum punishment under the new rules, which is a two-year suspension. A day later, Tibau admitted he used

erythropoietin Erythropoietin (; EPO), also known as erythropoetin, haematopoietin, or haemopoietin, is a glycoprotein cytokine secreted mainly by the kidneys in response to cellular hypoxia; it stimulates red blood cell production (erythropoiesis) in the bo ...

out-of-competition thinking it "wouldn’t be anything" and that he thought he wasn't doing something wrong. Subsequently, on February 18, USADA announced Tibau's two-year suspension retroactive to the date of the fight and his win is now overturned to a loss, per the anti-doping policy of the Comissão Atlética Brasileira de MMA (CABMMA), which regulated the bout. Thus, Abel Trujillo's loss was overturned to a win.

Results

Bonus awards

The following fighters were awarded $50,000 bonuses: *Fight of the Night: None awarded *Performance of the Night: Vitor Belfort, Thomas Almeida, Alex Oliveira and Thiago Tavares

References

UFC Fight Night 2015 in mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts in Brazil Sport in São Paulo 2015 in Brazilian sport November 2015 sports events in South America {{mixedmartialart-stub

Background

Results

Bonus awards

See also

References