(Photo via Sherdog)

At the risk of using the word “bro” twice in one day, bro, Vitor Belfort is an old-school guy. From the day he beat the crap out of that pig-butt Jon Hess during his MMA debut in 1996, he’s been loved and feared for his lightning hand-speed, devastating power, and savage finishes. And next month at UFC 152, he has the opportunity to become the UFC light-heavyweight champion for the second time in his career — he’ll just have to get through Jon Jones to do it. Do you believe in miracles?

In honor of this historic upcoming fight, we’ve rounded up some of the greatest Vitor Belfort GIFs on the Internet. Note: Because some of your computers can’t handle it when we post multiple GIFs on the same page, we’re going to stick with one per page for this gallery. Use the “next page” links to advance through the gallery, and if you prefer the old setup, let us know in the comments section. Enjoy…

(Props: Calavero)

In a candid moment backstage before his UFC 146 co-main event against Cain Velasquez, Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva was spotted working through a rather unique pre-fight warmup, which included bobbing his massive jaw up and down in Muppet-like fashion, and hammer-fisting himself in the nose. While Silva successfully avoided any painful face-cramps during the fight, he wasn’t able to prevent this from happening.

Related: This very NSFW variation from letibleu on the UG, which makes a dramatic shift from “LOL!” to “NOOOOOOOO!”. You’ve been warned.

(Always with the forehead contact, eh Mike?)

Staredown gif via ‘unfilter’ on the UG. The full UFC on FOX 2 press conference video is after the jump, in which Dana White clarifies that Chael Sonnen is not actually the middleweight champion, nor will he be challenging for the light-heavyweight or heavyweight titles after this fight.

(Anthony Johnson vs. Charlie Brenneman)

With knockout power in all four limbs, Anthony Johnson is one of the most athletic and explosive fighters in the UFC. (He said it, so it’s okay for us to say it too.) Now testing his fate at middleweight — arguably a much more natural weight class for him — Rumble will face Vitor Belfort in the co-main event of UFC 142 this Saturday. Will his power be even scarier at 185? Check out some animated highlights from his UFC career, which continue after the jump, and let us know what you think.

#10: Not everybody was prepared for the intensity of the UFC on FOX promo trailer.

Damn we love us a good GIF. 2011 provided us with dozens of memorable ones, but these ten stood out a little more than the rest. If we’ve left out one of your favorites, shoot us a link in the comments section. Props to ZombieProphet, Gordo on the UG, and everybody else who spends time making these things.

#9: Honey badger don’t care.

All nine stoppages from Saturday’s action-packed “Jones vs. Machida” card, in convenient animated gif form. Props to IronForgesIron and the UG; lots more after the jump.

(Once again, “elusive” trumps “explosive.” Lots more giffy goodness after the jump.)

Unlike our previous GIF galleries, this one will not feature any shuffling or bumping bitches out of the way. Instead, we’ve got 14 examples of Lyoto Machida in the cage doing what he does best — beating his opponents to the punch and foot-sweeping them into a living death. The question is: Will any of it work against Jon Jones at UFC 140 this Saturday?

By the end of this gallery, you’ll remember why you either love or hate this guy. Lots more Mayhem after the jump.

(Ryan Bader has so much power in his hands, he only has to punch in the general vicinity of your head to knock you out. / GIFS via IronForgesIron)

All the knockouts and submissions from UFC 139: Shogun vs. Henderson, in animated GIF form. Lots more after the jump.

Now that Georges St. Pierre is booked to face Nick Diaz on Super Bowl weekend, we thought it was time to put together a moving-picture tribute to the French-Canadian UFC superstar. Lots more brilliant GSP gifs are after the jump.

Previously:
Gallery: 11 GIFs of Alistair Overeem Being Awesome
Gallery: 10 GIFS of Joe Rogan Being Awesome
Hump Day Gallery: 20 GIFs of Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson Being Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson

(Punch-face: Where ‘herp’ meets ‘derp’. Photo via Cagewriter.)

Of the 11 bouts hosted at UFC 136, eight went to the judges — which made the other three seem even more special by comparison. In case you missed ‘em on Saturday, take a look back at the two dramatic submissions and one classic knockout from “Edgar vs. Maynard III.”

GIFs are after the jump, via IronForgesIron.

(Props: IronForgesIron via MMAMania)

If you missed the UFC 134 Spike TV Prelims broadcast on Saturday, then you missed Rousimar Palhares act as judge, jury, and (almost) executioner against Dan Miller. Near the end of the first round, Palhares landed a huge head kick that flattened Miller, and followed it up with some nasty punches from the top. And then he raised his arms in victory and strolled off to jump on the cage, as if the fight had been stopped, which it definitely hadn’t.

Herb Dean was forced to corral Palhares and tell him the fight was still going on. When the action was re-started, Miller immediately floored Palhares with a punch, but Palhares quickly recovered and did enough through the rest of the match to earn a comfortable unanimous decision win (29–27, 30–27, 30–25).

For ‘Toquinho’, it’s just the latest chapter in a controversial UFC career that has already included a 90-day suspension due to brutality, and an epically failed attempt to file a greasing complaint against Nate Marquardt while Marquardt was beating the crap out of him. But Palhares says the Miller non-stoppage was just a simple misunderstanding:

(Props: ArielHelwani)

When Swedish light-heavyweight prospect Alexander Gustafsson (12-1) stepped into the cage against Matt Hamill at UFC 133 on Saturday night, he was already carrying UFC victories over Jared Hamman, Cyrille Diabate, and James Te-Huna, all by stoppage. But his savage second-round TKO of Hamill (gif after the jump) represented his first big-name scalp, and now sets the 24-year-old on a steep upward trajectory.

Asked about his improvements since his sole career loss to Phil Davis in April 2010, Gustafsson said, “I see myself like, I want to beat the Alex who was fighting against Te-Huna. Next fight I want to beat the Alex who fought Matt Hamill. I want to be better after every practice, and evolve, progress.”

Hamill came in as a short-notice replacement for Vladimir Matyushenko, and said after the fight that not having a full training camp led to him feeling fatigued and weak against Gustafsson. Though the UFC gave Hamill credit for stepping up, his future in the UFC is somewhat uncertain. Meanwhile, Gustafsson is a new golden boy in the 205-pound division. Any suggestions on who he should fight next?

(GIF is after the jump, courtesy of IronForgesIron via MiddleEasy.)

“I figured him to be tough, but I did hear his arm pop three times when I had the deep kimura. I was trying to finish or break his arm, and I was telling the referee, ‘Hey, it’s broke, it’s broke’, but he is a tough guy. It didn’t really surprise me, but man, props to him.”

- So says Jeremy Stephens (to HeavyMMA) who nearly went home with the arm of Roufusport lightweight prospect Danny Downes during the second round of their preliminary card bout on Saturday night. Stephens eventually gave up on the kimura when Downes wouldn’t tap, but continued to beat the tar out of him en route to a unanimous decision. (30-26 x 2, 30-27)

Well, they can’t all be homeruns — but mad respect for trying. Gif courtesy of IronForgesIron.com.

(Photo courtesy of MMAFighting.com. Gif is now after the jump.)

Already a fixture on the UFC highlight reels of Junior Dos Santos and Roy Nelson, Stefan Struve became the victim of another first-round knockout tonight at UFC 130, succumbing to what might be the most devastating superman punch ever thrown inside of an eight-sided cage. The victorious Travis Browne increased his MMA record to 11-0-1, and was awarded UFC 130′s Knockout of the Night bonus for his efforts, picking up an additional $70,000.

UFC 130′s other performance bonuses went to Brian Stann and Jorge Santiago (Fight of the Night) for their two-round bang-up that kicked off the pay-per-view broadcast, and Gleison Tibau (Submission of the Night) for his rear-naked choke of Rafaello Oliveira during the prelims; it was the only fight on the card that ended via submission.

(The UFC legend known as ‘Rising Douchebag’.)

(Mickey Rourke shares an awkward moment with a lady-friend.)

Arranged on two pages to prevent browser-meltdown; hit the “next page” link at the bottom for the rest. For even more giffy goodness, click here.

(John Makdessi vs. Kyle Watson)

Props to IronForgesIron.com. More after the jump…

All praise be to Master Steven Seagal. Or Ralph Macchio. One of the two. Lyoto Machida‘s incredible jumping front-kick KO of Randy Couture at UFC 129 netted him the event’s Knockout of the Night bonus, which came out to a whopping $129,000. (See what Dana did there?) The UFC can certainly afford it, since UFC 129′s gate revenue was reportedly $12.075 million.

Also picking up $129k bonuses: Jose Aldo and Mark Hominick (Fight of the Night) for their epic five-round featherweight title bout, and Pablo Garza for his flying triangle over Yves Jabouin in the first preliminary match.

Another look at the Machida/Couture KO is after the jump. Gifs via The Destroyer88.

(Props: pedrommabjj via Fightlinker)

If you have a morbid interest in seeing how James Irvin’s last fight against Mamed Khalidov went, well, here you go. I’m not going to throw around the word “work,” but check out how wide and telegraphed Irvin’s punches are, starting at the 0:21 mark — it’s the universal non-verbal sign for “please armbar me so I can collect my paycheck and head to the airport.” And that’s pretty much what happens. Happy now?

After the jump: The brutal finish of Patricio “Pitbull” Freire vs. Georgi Karakhanyan from Saturday’s Bellator show, Junior Dos Santos pulls off a pretty damn respectable “Showtime Kick,” and the gif of Shogun tapping against Jon Jones at the end of their fight at UFC 128, in case you haven’t seen it yet.