Four time world Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu champion, Rodolfo Vieira thinks about moving to compete at MMA but not any time soon. The 24-year-old BJJ practitioner has started to train Muay Thai to have a striking base when making the transition – and is taking some beatings in the process, as he told Tatame.com.br.
“I’ve been thinking about it but it’s too soon. I’ve been training Muay Thai only since a month ago. I’m enjoying it but, so far, I just got my ass kicked (laughs). In the future, when I get confidence in my stand up game, I’ll think better about this transition. I still need more time.”
As a demonstration, Vieira posted in his Instagram account him doing a still little developed boxing pad work. “Dude, to learn Jiu-Jitsu was hard. But I’m not that bad at my fifth class lol. I barely could keep my hands raised at this point. I’m really enjoying and with a lot of will to learn,” he wrote.
On February of 2012, he told Graciemag.com that he would only make the transition after four world absolute titles in BJJ – he has one so far.