[the-spellr]

Vitor has potential, he will refocus soon again and come back as the born again phenom.
He's a believer in christ and will proceed to be a miracle, improving in his last he'll just progress from here and on. That handspeed.. deadly, ask Marvin Eastman

[UBCshocker]

and leben, the crow, arlovski, they arent really the kind of fighters people stick with, couture, vitor, tito, silva, and others, those are the kind of fighters people tend to stay with.

maybe that makes sense to everyone else, sounded good in my head

[Cydewynder20]

Early on, he was just plain beautiful to watch. He was like poetry in motion. It was almost mesmerizing, the way he could dance and strike.

[kontac]

I think its because Vitor has true fans. I myself am a huge Vitor fan. So much that I bought his instructional DVDs. I know he will most likely never be back to the way he was but its good to hope.

[Aronafan1019]

Cyderwyner20 summed it up perfectly

[nkutke262]

Originally Posted by MontisVerdes

In MMA, bandwagons are filled up and abandoned quicker than any other sport. Leben's badwagon is empty and weather beaten in the middle of the desert. Same with Arlovski. Same with The Crow. Same with countless others who have lost a fight.

Why does Vitor's bandwagon keep rolling so strongly? He hasn't done much in three years or more, yet his fans stay so loyal to him. This is very interesting to me, and very uncommon in the world of MMA.

Vitor is more like a football team whose fans follow through the bad years, just hoping the team is going to turn it around.

Discuss?

I think that it has to do with longevity. Vitor's been around awhile, while the other 3 have come around relatively recently. Also, Vitor ran over Legends when he stormed the UFC. I can't say the same for those other 3.

PS. I still like Leben

[Mark]

Originally Posted by Cydewynder20

Early on, he was just plain beautiful to watch. He was like poetry in motion. It was almost mesmerizing, the way he could dance and strike.

Lol...this quote is veering toward "Lance Bass" territory... but I tend to agree in general. Vitor was just so talented at a young age, it seemed like he would be unstoppable in MMA.

[Plissken]

Well, a few points.

1. He was the ADCC champion and one of the best grapplers of his era.
2. Despite that he won most of his early mma fights by knockout and showed fast powerful hands and good boxing skills.
3. People know thta he has a lot of potential based on this, but also that he does not have a stable mind and will, and both can be broken by mindgames, his own doubt, etc. - even before the fight starts. The ordeal with his missing sister also really hurt him for a great deal of time (as it would most anyone), and that's often used as an example of why he performs under expectations.

Basically he has so much potential, but hasn't lived up to it for the most part. People still want to believe he can live up to it. I think a lot of Vitor fans have taken to Swick and Terrell because they are also Very good grapplers that have very good hands too.

[HHJ]

actually stopping wanderlei probably has something to do with it

[Arlovski_tko]

if the arlovski bandwagon is empty i guess im the captain