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Hello, there! It is Thursday once again, so I guess it is time for yet another edition of the Brazil Beat. You know, the roundup of everything that shook up the fighting community in Brazil, all conveniently grouped up in one place by yours truly.
It’s an exciting one, too. Not only do we have several exciting finishes courtesy of Jungle Fight 116 and LFA 159, but we also got some drama involving controversial UFC middleweight Paulo Costa, an unusual callout by a lightweight and even some bad blood in the BJJ world. However, that’s not even all of it.
Want to know what else we have for this week? Well, let’s jump right in.
UFC middleweight Bruno Silva wants a piece of Paulo Costa
In this week’s top story, a personal story involving a couple of UFC middleweights with some unfinished business. In an interview on Fabricio Werdum’s ‘Nem Me Viu‘ podcast, Bruno Silva shared a tale that happened a few years ago, involving himself and contender Paulo Costa.
While Silva made it clear that he holds no resentment towards Costa, the story did leave him wanting to face ‘Borrachinha’ in the Octagon. According to ‘Blindado’, it all started when he declined an invitation from Costa to train with him.
“Borrachinha once invited me to do a training camp with him, when he was going to fight Uriah Hall. I declined and told him that it was because I was in Russia with my team. I said I preferred teams instead of this camp thing. He was kind of upset with me after that.”
“Was his behavior good? No, I don’t think it’s right. Do I think it’s wrong? No. He’s making money. He’s starting to fit into that American pattern of doing his own thing, with that secret juice of his, his beefs and all that. He never caused me any harm, though. I hope the MMA gods can put us face to face one day. It would be a great fight. Two aggressive guys. It would be a great fight for the UFC and for everyone who likes striking.”
It is unlikely that Silva will have a chance to have his wish granted at the moment, given Paulo Costa’s status in the promotion, but never say never, right?
Jungle Fight 116 delivers the finishes and a tribute
Moving on from the Paulo Costa drama to an exciting card in Brazil. Yes, I know Dallas Winston did a wonderful job covering everything that went down at Legacy Fighting 159, which did take place in Brazil and was full of great finishes. However, that was not the only MMA event to take place in the country last weekend.
In fact, the biggest Brazilian promotion returned with a card that saw its fair share of finishes, too. Yes, Jungle Fight 116 featured a couple of title fights and delivered some thrilling bouts all around. Let’s take a closer look, shall we?
Though the main event did not feature a finish, it is worth noting that Arcangelo Soares became the new Jungle Fight welterweight champion with a come-from-behind split decision win over Vanderlei Goncalves. Here’s the moment the new champ was crowned.
While the welterweight belt changed hands, the women’s flyweight title was retained. In the co-main event, Elora Dana defended her title and stayed undefeated with a first-round rear-naked choke win over Faelly Picanco. Here’s the finish.
That is not all, though. Jungle Fight still featured several other finishes, including a rear-naked choke win by welterweight Joel Salviano in the last seconds of his fight, a ground and pound TKO win by bantamweight Renan Freitas and yet another RNC sub by featherweight Rafael Nunes.
Last but not least, Jungle Fight 116 also paid tribute to its former featherweight champion and UFC veteran Felipe Colares, who tragically died earlier this month when he was struck by a bus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
You may be flexible, but are you Rangel Farias flexible?
Ok, so this one is a stretch. No, seriously, it is.
Rangel Farias, a muay thai master who has sharpened the skills of former UFC middleweight champion Alex Pereira and contender Paulo Costa shared a video of his post-training stretching routine.
It’s quite impressive and Farias did challenge his followers to try and see how far they can go, but please don’t try beating his mark at home unless you’re Stretch Armstrong or something.
If you’re still up for it, do follow the coach’s instructions. Controlling your breathing is key and make sure the person holding your leg has both hands on the ball of the foot, not on any tendons or muscles.
Diego Ferreira with the unusual callout
Do you remember UFC lightweight Gregor Gillespie? Well, Diego Ferreira sure does.
It may be hard to let go of a loss for some fighters and BJJ blackbelt Diego Ferreira is still not over his defeat to Gillespie in May 2021. Though the wrestler has not competed since that TKO victory two years ago and nobody knows whether he will ever compete again, the Brazilian still yearns for payback.
In an interview with Ag Fight, Ferreira explained that he would like to have another go against Gillespie, especially since he took the fight on short notice in 2021. While this is the main reason why the Brazilian is campaigning for the rematch, the 38-year-old also admits that he would not mind facing the wrestler again just because he does not care for the wrestler very much.
“I have Gillespie in mind. That guy beat me in the second fight (of my losing skid). I won’t say I hate the guy, but he talks a lot. I took that fight on a three-week notice. I almost finished him. I learned a lot of lessons, so I would like that fight. Mostly because he’s not ranked anymore. He took my spot at the time. I want to fight. I want to break him because I don’t like the guy.”
Nova Uniao member fighting for a belt at KSW 83
Shifting the focus to Poland for a little bit now, we’ve got a Brazilian fighting for the bantamweight title at KSW 83 this Saturday. Yes, Nova Uniao’s Werlleson Martins is making the final preparations to take on champion Jakub Wiklacz on June 2, in his second attempt at gold after ‘Galinho’ came up short in his first title shot last year.
In an interview with Combate, the 27-year-old warned Wiklacz that the champion should not underestimate the challenger. Martins guaranteed he has been studying the Pole’s game for years and sees many holes in his game that can be exploited in the cage.
“He’s a tall and skinny grappler. We noticed he had some openings in his torso area and worked on that. It was funny, because we had been studying him even before we knew we would face him. I was in the middle of my camp for the Surdyn fight and I had a teacher who was already studying him (Wiklacz), prophesying that I’d face him next. We’ve been studying him since that day. We saw many openings and we’ll try to exploit those on Saturday.”
“I’d tell him to be ready and to not underestimate him.” Martins said. “People around here (in Poland) are underestimating me a lot. I’m a really aggressive guy. I’m unpredictable and I’m coming to take the belt from him.”
Invicta fighter teaches on her free time to make ends meet
Atomweight Elisandra Ferreira has been finding some success in her MMA career, but it doesn’t seem to be enough yet. While ‘Lili’ is still undefeated at Invicta FC, having scored two straight victories in both of her matchs under the promotion, the 25-year-old still needs to teach martial arts in her free time in order to pay the bills.
In an interview with Globo Esporte, Ferreira emphasized how grateful she was for making it to Invicta, but explained she still does not have enough sponsors to guarantee she can fully dedicate herself to the fighting career.
While Ferreira keeps on climbing the ladder at Invicta, the young athlete hopes one day she can make it to the UFC so she can finally get to a better financial situation. Hopefully fighter pay will still not be what it is now when she gets there, right?
“I still can’t make a living from just fighting. I don’t have a fixed monthly sponsor to support my training, so I’ve been balancing it with lessons. I’ve been teaching in my spare time, when it doesn’t get in the way of my training sessions.”
“I dream of going to the UFC, so I can show that even a person from a small team in a small town can conquer the world. I hope to put myself and my family in a better situation through my work, which is fighting.”
BJJ stars Nicolas Meregali and Felipe Pena are beefing online
And now for some Brazilian jiu-jitsu drama, we’ve got a rivalry between some top grapplers in both gi and no gi grappling.
In an interview on podcast ‘MMA Hoje‘, three-time world champion and two-time ADCC champ Nicholas Meregali expressed his desire to rematch fellow ADCC winner Felipe ‘Preguica’ Pena and guaranteed their match will happen sooner or later. Though Meregali would like to take on his rival in a gi match, he is also ready for a more likely no gi bout.
“We’re fighting sooner or later. We have a rivalry that sells and we’re fighting. I’d like to fight him in a gi again. It would be a fight to promote gi jiu-jitsu, but he wants no gi. At the same time he’s training no gi, I am too. I’d put on my gi to beat him. I’d put on my gi for two or three weeks and then face him in a 15-minute match. It would be a fight to hype up gis. But we’re fighting without a gi, for sure.”
On his official Instagram, Pena replied to Meregali’s provocations, calling him a fake Gordon Ryan. However, he does intend to have the rematch before he can face BJJ star Gordon Ryan, who is currently recovering from health issues and is out of comission for an undetermined period.
“I’m open to fight you whenever. Right now, I’m training without a gi as I wait for Gordon Ryan to recover from his diarrhea. As for the gi fight, we can do that after my fight with Gordon happens, which is when I intend to start training and fighting in a gi again.” He wrote, finishing the post with #fakegordon.
In the comments, Meregali wrote that he is also training without a gi and therefore Pena did not have an excuse to avoid him.
Meregali and Pena only faced each other once at IBJJF’s 2018 World Championship. The match ended with Meregali winning via submission in the quarter-finals of the absolute tournament.
A Brazilian Beat
This week, it’s my absolute favorite Brazilian rapper. With a career that spans over 30 years, he’s also one of the most seasoned guys still in the business. I’m talking about the smart, funny and politically aware Gustavo de Almeira Ribeiro, better known by stage name: Black Alien.
Not only does Black Alien’s songs usually have some great beats and samples, but his lyrics are full of wordplay, pop culture references, personal experiences and social commentary delivered through some clever rhymes that sometimes even mix up English and Portuguese between verses.
It’s hard to recommend just one his songs, but I’ll go with a recent favorite of mine that shows some of the examples I listed in the previous paragraph. Honestly, though, the whole 2019 album called “Abaixo de Zero: Hello Hell” is worth checking out. Here’s the track:
That’s it for now! Enjoy the weekend and stay safe! See you all next time.
Lucas out.
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