A Reintroduction for Rodolfo Bellato

A health scare forced Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight hopeful Rodolfo Bellato to miss all of 2024, negating much of the momentum he had built during his rise to the sport’s highest level.

The 29-year-old Knockout Squad rep will return to the Octagon for the first time in 14 months when he faces Jimmy Crute in a featured UFC 312 attraction on Saturday at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney. Bellato admits his extended absence from competition has been frustrating, even though it was out of his control.

“I had a serious kidney issue—a severe infection caused by bacteria,” he told Sherdog.com. “This kept me away from high-performance training for a while. However, I never stopped training. I trained any way I could.”

A former Legacy Fighting Alliance champion, Bellato carries an impressive 11-2 record that includes 11 finishes. Countryman Vitor Petrino was responsible for his only two defeats—one on the Brazilian regional scene in 2019 and another on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2022. Experience has taught Bellato to take the good and the bad in stride.

“I believe that my career so far is like real life,” he said. “We have ups and downs. The most important thing is to always have a good mindset and learn from victories and defeats. I have learned and matured a lot.”

Now Crute stands in his way. The former Hex Fight Series titleholder and DWCS graduate was once one of MMA’s more promising prospects. However, Crute has fallen on hard times of late, as evidenced by his 0-3-1 record across his past four outings. The 28-year-old Aussie last suited up at UFC 290, where he submitted to a guillotine choke from Alonzo Menifield in the second round of their July 8, 2023 encounter.

“I accepted this fight with 30 days’ notice, but I’m a guy who’s always training, regardless of whether I have a fight scheduled or not,” Bellato said. “I am always looking for and waiting for the opportunity to fight. He’s an experienced athlete with several fights in the organization. He’ll show up motivated since he’ll be fighting at home, but that doesn’t scare me. I know what I have to do to walk out of there victorious. I’m going to bring this victory back to Brazil.”

Bellato enters his latest assignment on a four-fight winning streak and hopes to use his performance as a springboard to prominence at 205 pounds.

“My plans for the future are that I’ll finish in the Top 15 of the light heavyweight division [in 2025],” he said, “and I want to have at least three fights this year.”