UFC prepared a world tour to promote the stacked cards planned for the fourth quarter of 2013, and the last media event was scheduled to happen during the UFC 163 weekend in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez, who headline the UFC 166 card on Oct. 19, in Houston, Texas, were expected to address the public and media in the Wonderful City, but the champion didn’t show up.
During a lunch recently with local journalists, including UOL’s Jorge Correa, “Cigano” criticized his next opponent for reportedly passing on the travel because of the “violence of the country.”
“He was supposed to come, but then he said something to Dana White. I don’t know what happened,” dos Santos told the reporters. “It’s absurd because I had to travel here and there, everybody had to travel everywhere. I know I’m doing my job and that’s what matters. People talk a lot of crap about Brazil, but no one knows (the truth). I don’t know what really happened, but there were a lot of Mexicans there taking pictures with me, talking to me. It would happen the same thing with him here. I could go to Mexico, but not now. I have to train.”
After four days of media events in California, New York and Texas, the former heavyweight champion can’t look at Velasquez’s eyes anymore.
“Man, I spent a whole week meeting him every day,” dos Santos said. “At first there were some heat in the staredowns, but that was it. Imagine a whole week, more than once a day? We went to a TV show and started laughing, then we couldn’t stare each other without laughing. I couldn’t look to his eyes anymore.”
The possibility of former Strikeforce heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier dropping to the 205-pound division in the future was one of the topics of the conversation, but “Cigano” believes it will never happen.
“He’s not (dropping to 205 pounds),” dos Santos said. “And you know why? Because I will defeat Cain, and he will want to fight me.”
“Cigano” spent the whole lunch sitting side by side with his ex-wife Vilsana Picolli, who remains as one of his managers. But that didn’t stop the fighter from praising TUF 18 coaches Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey, who attended some of the media events with him during the tour.
“I was impressed on how Miesha is gorgeous,” dos Santos praised. “Not that Ronda isn’t beautiful, but let’s say she’s more ‘regular’. She’s cute. But Miesha is really gorgeous. Have you seen here already? On TV, I thought she was normal, but when I met her… My God!”