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Hello, boys and girls. It is Thursday once again, which means it’s time for another edition of the Brazil Beat. You know, the weekly roundup of all the news in the Brazilian fighting community, all conveniently put together in one place by yours truly.
This week, Alex Pereira once makes the headline, by addressing Sean Strickland’s win over Israel Adesanya. Plus, Junior dos Santos talks his win over Fabricio Werdum, internet celebrity Whindersson Nunes returns to the boxing ring and much more. Let’s go!
Alex Pereira gives Sean Strickland all the credit
Despite having trained with the new middleweight champion for a little while, Alex Pereira wants to make sure the credit for beating Israel Adesanya at UFC 293 goes entirely to Sean Strickland.
In an interview with Combate, Alex Pereira praised Strickland’s performance and even emphasized how they only trained together for a short period of time. Nonetheless, ‘Poatan’ also guarantees he was able to learn a lot from ‘Tarzan’ in the time they spent together.
“I want to make it clear that I have no influence on his win. The merit goes entirely to him. He’s a determined guy. He was able to show his style there. We only trained together a little, but we had some good talks that maybe did some good. Not just for this fight, but for the rest of his career from now on. Just like I will keep the things he said to me in mind and put them in practice.”
What do you guys think, were you able to catch any of Alex Pereira’s signature moves in Sean Strickland’s performance against Adesanya?
Junior dos Santos is a fan of bare knuckle fighting now
Former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos may have just eeked out a split decision win over Fabricio Werdum when they met in a bare knuckle MMA match last weekened. However, ‘Cigano’ seems to have become a fan of the sport.
In an interview with Combate, the Brazilian explained how the lack of gloves actually fit well into his style of fighting. Furthermore, the whole experience seems to have brought much needed closure for Cigano in his rivalry with Werdum, who now considers his former rival an actual friend.
“I liked it. It was pretty interesting, actually. Since you’re not wearing gloves, you end being more efficient. I like to use my speed without putting too much power into my strikes and they still cause a lot of damage. In my opinion, for my way of fighting, I really liked it. It was a positive experience.”
“It’s all cool, now. We’re friends. I think this was another great victory that was I able to conquer, actually. Being able to talk to him more directly and be open about it. There’s nothing that makes dislike the guy, I don’t like to hold on to anything negative. Why would you hold on to something that adds nothing? I think we were missing that, this chance to talk. We had the chance to do it and I enjoyed it a lot. It was pretty cool. Now we’re tight.”
I loved the happy ending and that Cigano and Werdum are now friends. However, I’m not a fan of Junior dos Santos’ newly found interest in bare knuckle fighting. I mean, did he take a good look at Werdum’s face at the end of their match?
Another kickboxing champion in the UFC
Speaking of Brazilian heavyweights. There’s a new name that might be making waves in the promotion pretty soon. Much like Alex Pereira before him, Jhonata Diniz is a kickboxing champion who has recently decided to transition to MMA and has found nothing but success so far.
Still undefeated at 6-0, the 32-year-old hast just knocked out Eduardo Jose Neves at Contender Series to secure a contract with the promotion. In an interview with Ag Fight, Diniz explained that not only the challenge of making it in a new sport, but also the prospect of making more money both motivated him to make the move.
“After I won my last world title, two years ago, we were like ‘Now what? Where do we go?’. We’re trying a different challenge. That’s when we started doing MMA. Professionally, I’m very accomplished in kickboxing. I really loved it. Financially, though, kickboxing just doesn’t even come close to what you can make in MMA. The biggest reason why we decided to pivot was money and the new challenges that come with testing ourselves in a new sport.”
Good heavyweight prospects come around once in a blue moon, so this is actually exciting. Being a knockout artist in the heavyweight could also mean bigger paydays if Diniz can keep the finishes coming. Other than that, he might soon learn that there isn’t that much money in MMA, too.
Brazilian comedian aiming at Logan Paul
Internet celebrity Whindersson Nunes continues his venture into boxing in October. Having lost to fellow entertainer King Kenny in his last outing, the Brazilian now return to take on YouTuber MyMateNate, in Manchester, England.
In fact, Nunes will be facing Nate on the same night where KSI is scheduled to take on Tommy Fury and Logan Paul is set to face Dillon Danis. For the Brazilian, fighting on the same night as all of those celebrities is exactly what he wanted, since he is still trying to meet Logan Paul in the ring at some point.
“This whole boxing thing started when I wanted to fight Logan Paul years ago.” Nunes told Combate. “Fighting on the same card as him means we’re close to that goal. I’m really happy to be in this huge promotion. The biggest in the world. On October 14, I’m giving the fans a show in Manchester.”
If there is a Brazilian celebrity big enough to score a fight against Logan Paul, it would probably be Whindersson Nunes. People would be all over that, at least in Brazil. That much I can say.
A Brazilian Beat
As some of you have requested, it’s time to talk about Brazilian metal.
The only reason why it took me this long to put a metal band on the Brazilian Beat is that I don’t listen to that much metal at all. However, the metal scene in the country is as rich as it gets, going across multiple styles and producing some legendary acts such as Angra, Viper and Shaman, among many others.
However, there is one band that has always stood out to me for mixing their sound with Brazilian and African rhythms and making it work wonderfully. I am, of course, talking about Sepultura and their 1996 album Roots.
Sepultura was formed in the state of Minas Geiras’ capital of Belo Horizonte in 1984 by brothers Iggor and Max Cavalera. Though neither is still in the band anymore, both were there when they released Roots, their sixth studio album.
Roots became widely popular for celebrating the Amazon, Africa and Brazilian culture, integrating tribal drums, capoeira instruments such as the berimbau and much more into the band’s heavy metal style. The result is what you’ll see (and listen) right below in one of that album’s singles, “Attitude”.
Try to catch all the different sounds the band tried to place into just one track, it’s quite impressive.
Also, the video features mixed martial arts in an early UFC-like cage and reenacts Royce Gracie’s fights and surprising victory in UFC 1, which I believe makes this song an even more fitting choice for this segment. So enjoy!
That’s it for this week, folks. See you all next time. Stay safe!
Lucas out.
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