Zorobabel Moreira is not a top-10 ranked lightweight yet but he is on his way.
After being knocked out by upstart American Joe Ray in 2010, he has put together wins against better opponents, culminating in victories over veteran fighters Ferrid Kheder and Andy Wang.
His record now stands at 5-1 and he has been rewarded with a fight against Felipe Enomoto in the main event of One FC “War of the Lions” next weekend. If he wins—and I think he will—then the world might start to see what I see in Moreira.
He is a BJJ black belt who has won world championships, so he has that base covered. He’s been fighting MMA since 2008, so has had plenty of time to get used to using his grappling in a situation where opponents are allowed to hit him in the face and he can’t grab the Gi.
It’s unlikely that anyone is going to be able to submit Moreira, unless they can hurt him badly first. He trains with Shinya Aoki, Rafael Dos Anjos and Eddie Ng at Evolve MMAm so he has lots of good lightweights to spar, roll and wrestle with.
Moving to Singapore was a career defining moment for Moreira. Had he stayed in Brazil he would have been in danger of becoming a journeyman—a one dimensional BJJ expert in a country which is full of fighters with identical characteristics.
Joining Evolve MMA put him in the same place as some of the best Thai trainers on the planet. Working with former Lumpini champions is just what Moreira needed to progress from being a great BJJ fighter to becoming a great MMA fighter.
There is probably no one in all of Brazil who has the same sort of knowledge when it comes to kicking, punching and using elbows and knees as the trainers at Evolve MMA, who have completely unpronouncable names but very impressive pedigrees.
Another good thing which happened to Moreira—although at the time it probably didn’t feel that good—was getting knocked out by Joe Ray. After a loss like that a fighter can either give up or get better and Moreira didn’t give up.
Instead he went away and improved and came back stronger beating three much more experienced opponents in succession. Yun Seob Kwak, Ferrid Kheder and Andy Wang have 34 wins between them and Moreira beat them all impressively.
The defining moment came against Wang at One FC “Champion vs Champion” in Singapore. Moreira never even needed to use his BJJ and was able to beat Wang down by using just his Muay Thai. He had finally discovered how to use his 190 cms height and is going to be a handful for anyone at 70 kgs.
The fight with Enomoto will be a timely test because unlike Wang, Kheder and Kwak he is coming off a win and looked like a very skilled fighter in his last fight when he beat Ole Laursen by rear naked choke.
Moreira is 28 years old and is approaching his peak at exactly the right time. He has the best trainers and training partners and One FC is the perfect place for a fighter like him to gain experience and exposure while gradually moving up the lightweight ladder.
Evolve MMA is very confident that Moreira will go all the way and as they already have lightweights like Aoki and Dos Anjos, they should be able to judge pretty astutely just how good a prospect Moreira really is.
Right now his record is 5-1 and 2012 will be the year in which Moreira breaks out into the big time and becomes one of the best lightweights in the world.
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