After being stopped for the first time in his pro career at UFC 210, American Top Team product Charles Rosa (11-3) has made the long trip from Florida to Tokyo in order to compete at Friday’s UFC Fight Night: Okami vs. Saint Preux. At the Saitama Super Arena he’ll face Mizuto Hirota (18-8-2).
“I’m pretty excited to go fight in Japan, it’s a dream come true,” said the Massachusetts native when speaking to Bloody Elbow. “I just look at it like an away game,” he continued. “I’m going in there not the favourite. I’m fighting Mizuto Hirota who is a legend over there in Japan. He’s a former DEEP champion, but every time I’ve gone into a different country I’ve had the crowd cheering my name at the end.”
The 36-year-old Hirota last featured at UFC Fight Night 110 in Sydney. There he dropped a unanimous decision to Alex Volkanovski. “I think he’s a super durable, well rounded overall fighter,” said Rosa when asked to evaluate his opponent. “A lot of guys would compare him to a Kyle Bochniak. I’ve fought Bochniak and he’s super tough, tough as nails, good hard worker, good cardio, very athletic build, but I just feel that my skills are going to be better than Hirota’s everywhere.”
Hirota’s first pro-fight was against Masaaki Yamamori in 2005, for the Shooto organization. Asked whether he thought Hirota’s long time in the sport (which includes damaging brawls against Shinya Aoki and Pat Healy) may be to his advantage, Rosa was dismissive. “I definitely think the wear and tear over the years builds up, but that’s not something that I think will slow him down too much. I’m training to fight the best Mizuto Hirota there is and I’m sure he’s training as hard as he can and I’m sure he’s going to want a big win in front of his crowd. He’s going to bring everything he has.”
Rosa’s knowledge of Hirota is more advanced than most. In 2016 Hirota faced off with Rosa’s ATT teammate Cole Miller at UFC on Fox: VanZant vs. Waterson. “That was the first person I called,” said Rosa. “As far as a game-plan, Cole told me, ‘Listen, if you go into that fight well prepared, you’re going to beat the guy. He’s going to come in shape, he’s going to come in ready, but you’re going to beat the guy.’ Cole knows how hard I train and that I’m going to come in the same way, so he definitely gave me some good tips for the fight and some good confidence.”
Rosa and Miller are more than just teammates. The current UFC featherweight credits Miller as being a key inspiration behind his drive to become a professional mixed martial artist. It was Miller who was teaching a kickboxing class when a 23-year-old Rosa rode his bike over to ATT and inquired about training. During that first class, the students were asked to divide into pairs to practice sparring. Rosa was the odd man out.
“So I asked Cole, ‘Hey man, you wanna spar? I don’t have a partner.’ He kind of ignored me. He gave me like a smug look and then I asked him again, ‘Was that a no?’ and he was like, ‘Alright, you wanna spar?’ And he gave me my first five rounds of sparring and I went at it with him. I had a bloody nose after and everything, we went at it! And when I found out he was a UFC fighter the following day, a light bulb went off. I said, if that kid was top ten or fifteen in the world at the time, that guy who is the same size as me, then I know I can do this.”
Eight years later, Rosa continues to train at ATT. However, for this camp Hurricane Irma forced a sudden change of plan. As the catastrophic hurricane made landfall around the Florida Keys on September 10th Rosa was one of many people who voluntarily evacuated south Florida. Rosa was lucky to have a place to go in the Ocala area, where his girlfriend’s family lives.
Around Ocala he hooked up with past opponent Aaron Steadman who has a gym in the area. “I got some really good work in there!” said Rosa, who also remarked that it felt good to be outside of his comfort zone in Coconut Creek. Rosa was able to return to his home in Boca Raton relatively soon after this and, though he had no power for a while, his residence was undamaged. Although, Irma did come very close to costing the fighter $500 elsewhere.
“Once I got back to Boca, I was actually running down the street at 8 O’clock at night and I got pulled over by a police officer. And he said, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘I’m running, I’m putting work in, I’ve got a fight coming up in Japan.’ He said, ‘Well I have to give you a $500 fine.’ I said, ‘A $500 fine?! For what? I’m running down the street.’ He told me there’s a curfew from 8pm to 6am. I was like, ‘Ah man, listen, I’ll run home right now.’ He’s like, ‘I tell you what, I’m a UFC fan so if you run home right now I won’t give you the ticket, but you have to run straight home.’ So luckily I didn’t get a fine for breaking curfew.”
You can watch Charles Rosa take on Misuto Hirota on the main card of UFC Fight Night: Okami vs. Saint Preux. The main card begins at 10pm ET on FXX.