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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, we’ve got former UFC flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo calling out Sean O’Malley, the current flyweight champ stirring the pot with Colby Covignton, the thrilling finishes at Shooto Brasil 120 and much more.
Let’s jump right in.
Deiveson Figueiredo wants Sean O’Malley
Former UFC flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo had quite the successful debut in the bantamweight division. Having defeated Rob Font via dominant unanimous decision, the Brazilian does not wish to waste any time in getting closer to the belt in the new division. In fact, if the promotion allows him to, ‘Daico’ guarantees he is ready to take on the champion already.
In an interview with Super Lutas (translated by Bloody Elbow), Figueiredo explained that he feels prepared to take on Sean O’Malley in his next outing. Although the Brazilian is better known for his striking and heavy hands, he says he could give ‘Suga’ some problems on the ground and believes he could even finish the champion if given a chance.
“As a former champion, if the UFC wants to put me to fight for the title, I’m really ready. I’m a former champion in a division where fighters are incredible, too. I’ve shown it. Rob Font has fought the best guys in the division. Give me the title fight, I’ll accept it. Sean O’Malley is an excellent striker, but I really trust my team. I have deep jiu-jitsu skills, I’m a real grappler, I just never liked using it. When I enter the Octagon, I become a striker. I’m there to trade shots. I’m certain I’d put on a great fight against O’Malley. If he lets me get close, I will finish him.”
Figueiredo would have to deal with quite the height difference in order to close the distance to take down Sean O’Malley or to even land his more powerful shots. Though we saw he’s able to deal with bigger fighters in the fight with Rob Font, I think Suga is on a whole other level. Nonetheless, I think it could be a fun fight.
Alexandre Pantoja wants nothing to do with Colby Covington
Moving on from Sean O’Malley and Deiveson Figueiredo and to the current flyweight champion. We’ve got some drama involving Alexandre Pantoja, as well as other big names in the promotions at the moment.
While he was a training partner of former interim welterweight champ Colby Covignton for years at American Top Team, Alexandre Pantoja wants nothing to do with ‘Chaos’ as the pair gets ready to be featured together on UFC 296 co-main and main events.
In an interview on MMA Fighting’s Trocacao Franca podcast, Pantoja explained how Colby Covington is not welcome at the gym after parting ways with ATT in 2020 due to multiple beefs with different athletes from the team. In fact, the Brazilian claims that Chaos is still not welcome at American Top Team.
“Everybody wants to kill him there,” Pantoja said. “I don’t care, brother. I walk my path. I know everything he says is pure marketing. I work with [ATT boxing coach] Gabriel de Oliveira and Gabriel is a person I respect a lot, and he says [Covington] has always respected him. To me, you earn points if you treat well someone I like.”
Though Pantoja himself says he still respects Covington as an athlete he cannot hide the affect that he admires his opponent, Leon Edwards, much more and will be siding with ‘Rocky’ at UFC 296.
“I don’t care,” he said. “I was born in Copacabana and we are disgusting towards everybody [laughs]. There’s an artist right next to you and you don’t care. I respect him a lot as an athlete, but in a way I’m more connected to Leon Edwards because of his life story and everything he’s done. Leon Edwards is definitely someone I would go out of my way to shake hands and wish him a good fight, say I’m a big fan his work. Now, about that a–hole, I won’t say anything. Leave him alone [laughs].”
If the UFC was a fair place, Colby Covington wouldn’t even be fighting for a title with a win over Masvidal. Other than that, I feel like his racist remarks about other fighters have constantly crossed the line with no consequence, which sends a message that the UFC is OK with any kind of bigotry as long as it brings them money. It’s cool that Pantoja called him an a–hole, though I don’t think he should be left alone while he’s still headlining cards.
Mayra Bueno Silva wants to make Pennington quit
Moving on from male drama to women’s MMA, we’ve got a couple of interesting interviews ahead of us, starting with UFC bantamweight contender Mayra Bueno Silva, who’s expected to take on Raquel Pennington for the division’s vacant belt in 2024.
In an interview on the MMA Hour, ‘Sheetara’ started the provocations early by claiming Pennington doesn’t have a fighter’s heart and is going to make her quit when they meet at UFC 297.
“Do you remember Raquel fought with Amanda, Raquel said, ‘Alright, I’m done. I don’t want to fight anymore.’ Do you remember? For this reason, she doesn’t want to fight. She doesn’t like to fight. She wants to hold [during] the fight because she doesn’t like fighting. Remember, when she was done, ‘I don’t want no more. In the first round, when I punch her hard, she’ll talk again: ‘I don’t want to fight anymore.’”
Furthermore, the Brazilian also mocked her opponent’s fighting style, claiming ‘Rocky’ only holds people down while Bueno Silva herself prefers to inflict damage.
“I think she doesn’t want to fight,” Silva said. “She doesn’t have courage. She doesn’t like to fight. I like fighting, punching and takedowns. She likes to fight, but she likes to hold [in] fights. She doesn’t like to fight a clean fight. She likes more clinching and this thing, you know?”
I think this has the potential to be a good fight, actually. Pennington may not be as aggressive as Bueno Silva, but she does have sneaky BJJ and should not be underestimated just because she has lots of wins by decision. It’s when you drop your guard that you end up getting caught and everybody gets more motivated for title fights.
PFL could go head-to-head with the UFC, says Velasquez
Is the UFC losing space to the Professional Fighters League, now that they’ve acquired Bellator? One former champion believes so.
While she still nursing an injury caused by infection, former Bellator flyweight champion Juliana Velasquez is happy to witness the growing spread of celebrity boxing and with what the PFL has been able to do with their format lately.
In an interview on the Trocacao Franca, the Brazilian even mentioned how she thinks the PFL could equally compete with the UFC nowadays, with the Bellator roster and the ominous presence of former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou.
“PFL is growing a lot,” Velasquez said. “These fights they’re doing, Francis Ngannou in boxing and these YouTubers, Jake Paul. I think that combining their athletes to Bellator’s will give fighters more name and more opportunity to show their value.
“I really think PFL can go head-to-head with the UFC. It already does, I think. It’s going to be pretty even in the eyes of the public. I think it’s going to be super cool.”
Ever since I started following MMA (around 2009), the UFC had always seemed totally untouchable, as if other promotions shouldn’t even bother trying to compete with them for first place, since they were such a big monster, miles ahead of everyone else.
However, the last couple of years or so have brought much needed change and slowly but surely, the UFC no longer seems so unreachable and it looks like they have nobody else to blame but themselves for some of the decisions that allowed other leagues and promotions to actually start to catch up. I hope the PFL (but not only them) does that and much more, especially if fighters can benefit from it more in the end.
Shooto Brasil 120 brings the finishes
There was no Jungle Fight last weekend, but that does not mean we’re not getting our weekly dose of Brazilian MMA just the same. Here to fill the gap is Shooto Brasil 120, which featured seven finishes in a 12-bout card, including the main event.
Speaking of that main event, it featured a welterweight title fight with reigning champion and UFC veteran Hernani Perpetuo, who retained his title by TKO’ing Yukinari Tamura with a sneaky upkick right after getting knocked down by the challenger. Opportunism at its finest guaranteed another finish for the Nova Uniao athlete.
Though the co-main event also featured a title fight, in which Antonio Monteiro defeated Lucas Tavares by unanimous decision to win the featherweight belt, it did not end in a finish. However there were some other impressive stoppages from that night.
First, let’s take a look at Vitor Oristanio’s one-punch KO of Gabriel Fernandes in the featherweight division. Then, at bantamweight, Marcos Oliveira scored a highlight reel flying knee TKO against Davison Valente that is very much worth checking out, too.
A Brazilian Beat
Being that The Doors is in the top 5 of my favorite bands ever, I felt like it was time to celebrate some Brazilian psychedelic sounds around here. While we could talk about classic bands such as Os Mutantes or Casa das Máquinas, I’d rather give space to less known acts to shine. Which is why today’s choice is a band from Recife, in the state of Pernambuco, called Tagore.
If my memory still works, I believe UFC vet Raphael Assuncao is the biggest MMA fighter hailing from that city, but it is not the first time I’ve mentioned artists from Recife around here. That’s because it has always been responsible for having one of the liveliest music scenes in the country and for celebrating its culture with much pride.
Although Tagore’s influences come straight from the psychedelic roots of the 60’s and early 70’s, there’s also some modernity to their sound, given that they are a band from the 2010’s. This mix of styles and generations on top of lyrics in Portuguese that make them stand out even more give Tagore a unique sound and set quite the mood for when you need to sit back, close your eyes and just enjoy the trip.
Case in point is today’s pick. A song from the band’s 2016 album ‘Pineal’, named ‘Reflexo’ (Reflection, in Portuguese). Enjoy this one with the lights off and with headphones, if you can.
That’s it for this week, folks. Stay safe, see you all next time.
Lucas out.
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