Former Bellator middleweight champion Rafael Carvalho will have his light heavyweight debut on October 12 in Belaltor.
A five-year veteran of Bellator’s middleweight division as well as a former champion with three successful title defenses under his belt, muay thai specialist Rafael Carvalho now prepares to move up a weight class for the first time in his 19-bout professional MMA career at Bellator 230.
Paired up against rising prospect Vadim Nemkov, a 27-year-old, three-time sambo World Champion, Carvalho tells that change in weight classes was mostly influenced by health and performance reasons, stating that his body just wouldn’t perform as well while cutting to 185 pounds.
“My performance was what influenced me in changing divisions. My body was asking for it, I was sacrificing myself too much with the weight cut. My performance would be only half as good. That’s what influenced me, but I had already been thinking about that for a while.”
Despite being a former champion who and holding exciting knockout wins under Bellator’s banner, Carvalho does not feel like his time spent in the middleweight division will make for a shorter path towards the light heavyweight title, nor does the 33-year-old want it to be.
“I don’t think it’ll be a shorter path just because I’m a former middleweight champion. I believe I’ll have to go through the same work I did in the middleweight division. Step by step, no rush. Always respecting who’s ahead of me in line and showing why I deserve it. I can’t just arrive, win one fight and think I’ll have a title shot. I need to take it slow and put in the work in this division.”
When it comes to the fight itself, Carvalho believes that the clash of styles against Nemkov is an intriguing one, but makes no predictions as to any potetial outcomes, leaving all possibilites open for fight night.
“Preparation was great. Everything went according to plan. We sharpened our muay thai and put our wrestling and jiu-jitsu up to date. I’m ready for anything. This sambo vs. muay thai clash of styles will be interesting precisely because they are completely opposing styles. We’ll see how it pans out on fight night.”
Before moving to light heavyweight, Rafael Carvalho (16-3) tested the waters outside of middleweight by taking a 190 catchweight bout against Chid Njokuani, which he won via unanimous decision back in July. The victory snapped a two-fight losing skid, in which the Brazilian was defeated by veterans Lyoto Machida and Gegard Mousasi.
Now, Rafael Carvalho is expected to take on Vadim Nemkov at Bellator 230’s main event, in Milan, Italy, on October 12. The card happens just prior to the other Bellator event scheduled for the same night, Bellator Milan, which is set to be headlined by a light heavyweight bout between Melvin Manhoef and Yannick Bahati.