I felt rectified vindicated. After putting my faith in Frank Trigg and Ronnys Torres to come out victorious, Paulo Thiago‘s counter combination in the second round of action against Mike Swick provided relief. The subsequent pouncing and applied D’arce choke that immediately incapacitated Swick caused a lot of cheering and high fives. The upset pick had provided an escape from the pain of my terrible foresight and my pocketbook.
The 29-year-old Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt hailing out of Brasilia, Brazil is now making a name for himself as not only the “AKA Killer”, but he’s impressively made his way up the ranks as a legitimate top ten welterweight fighter. What exactly can be attributed to his success?
Interestingly enough, his entry into the UFC was considered by many to be a “tryout” with the promotion. His manager, Jungle Fight founder Wallid Ismail, insisted that Paulo had been given a contract with the promotion when he signed on to battle Josh Koscheck at UFC 95, but as we all know — the UFC’s ability to cut contracts is uncontested.
Fortunately for Paulo, his left hook/right uppercut combination after being battered for most of the first round connected beautifully to down Koscheck and give Thiago one of the biggest upset victories of 2009. Most fans considered the win “lucky”, including myself, but as we began to see over the course of his next three fights — Paulo Thiago is anything but lucky.
Thiago showed some brilliant Brazilian jiu-jitsu techniques against Jon Fitch despite the loss, much improved striking in his battle with Jacob Volkmann, and new found power against Mike Swick. Only a handful of fighters in the world can say they are improving by leaps and bounds over the course of a year, and Paulo Thiago is one of them.
Constrictor Team founder Atiade Junior and WEC fighter Rani Yahya are two of Thiago’s most influential teachers in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and Luis Eduardo Guerreiro‘s strength and conditioning program combined with Claudio Moreira‘s MMA training gives Thiago an outstanding edge.
Thiago has also been training with Nova Uniao and Team Black House in more recent months as he prepared for Mike Swick, and the training he’s received with fighters such as the Nogueira brothers and Anderson Silva has been invaluable to his progression as a fighter.
While all of these names and camps sound like a foolproof plan to creating a great fighter, Thiago’s abilities to assimilate knowledge at a staggering rate is easily one of the main reasons we’ve seen huge strides of improvement. He’s truly become a scholar of the sport who has shown off his newly adjusted skills in all their glory in the cage.
The mental fortitude that he’s obtained from his day-to-day occupation as a special forces member of BOPE, one of the most efficient military forces in the world, must also attribute to his successes as a fighter. There isn’t a fighter in the sport today that can say they’ve seen or done the things that Thiago may do on a daily basis.
Will success continue for Paulo Thiago? He’s placed himself in the top ten in the world at welterweight, and his next challenges in the Octagon will more than likely be against top talent in the division. What are his chances against fighters like Thiago Alves, Dan Hardy, Paul Daley, or Martin Kampmann?
At the current rate of improvement, the sky could be the limit for Paulo Thiago, and we could be seeing the next great welterweight fighter. I don’t forsee Thiago becoming the next Anderson Silva, Vitor Belfort, or Lyoto Machida, but he certainly has the right training and thirst for knowledge to attain a level of skill that is astounding.