RIO DE JANEIRO — This is the UFC 134 live blog for Ross Pearson vs. Edson Barboza, a lightweight bout on tonight’s UFC: Rio pay-per-view at the HSBC Arena in Brazil.
In his last appearance, the TUF 9 winner Pearson (12-4) defeated Spencer Fisher at UFC 127 in February. Barboza (8-0) has defeated Mike Lullo and Anthony Njokuani in his two UFC fights.
On the stat sheet, Barboza stands out with a six-inch reach advantage over the Brit.
Round 1: Lots of head movement from Pearson. Barboza throws a heavy leg kick and misses. Pearson aggressively puhses forward and he’s landing punches. Barboza chops away with leg kicks as he tries to circle away from Pearson’s offense. A nice exchange has Pearson connecting to the body and Barboza landing with a counter right hand. Pearson closes the distance with a knee but Barboza shoves him off. Barboza lands a spinning back kick on the arm and it doesn’t really phase Pearson. Pearson scores on a straight left. Pearson is doing a good job mixing up his punches even though he’s throwing kicks sparingly. Barboza throws a head kick but it’s blocked. Pearson changes angles and connects with a body shot. Pearson shoots for a double near the end of the round but Barboza stops it. 10-9 Pearson.
Round 2: They both clip each other with a jab. Barboza hits Pearson with a kick to the body and then connects on a right to knock Pearson down on his knees. Barboza is ridiculously quick with his kicks/punches. Pearson recovers and uses his jabs. Pearson catches Barboza off guard with a leg kick. Pearson lands with left as Barboza backs. Barboza scores with a right hand. Pearson uses consistent head movement. Pearson shoots halfway through the round and Barboza moves out of the way. Barboza with a huge right that is blocked. Pearson continues to pick off Barboza with jabs. Barboza connects with a spinning back kick that pushes Pearson back. Pearson is doing a good job with his lead left hooks. Barboza wins the round on the early knockdown but Pearson controlled the rest of the round. 10-9 Barboza.
Round 3:
RIO DE JANEIRO — This is the UFC 134 live blog for Ross Pearson vs. Edson Barboza, a lightweight bout on tonight’s UFC: Rio pay-per-view at the HSBC Arena in Brazil.
In his last appearance, the TUF 9 winner Pearson (12-4) defeated Spencer Fisher at UFC 127 in February. Barboza (8-0) has defeated Mike Lullo and Anthony Njokuani in his two UFC fights.
On the stat sheet, Barboza stands out with a six-inch reach advantage over the Brit.
Round 1: Lots of head movement from Pearson. Barboza throws a heavy leg kick and misses. Pearson aggressively puhses forward and he’s landing punches. Barboza chops away with leg kicks as he tries to circle away from Pearson’s offense. A nice exchange has Pearson connecting to the body and Barboza landing with a counter right hand. Pearson closes the distance with a knee but Barboza shoves him off. Barboza lands a spinning back kick on the arm and it doesn’t really phase Pearson. Pearson scores on a straight left. Pearson is doing a good job mixing up his punches even though he’s throwing kicks sparingly. Barboza throws a head kick but it’s blocked. Pearson changes angles and connects with a body shot. Pearson shoots for a double near the end of the round but Barboza stops it. 10-9 Pearson.
Round 2: They both clip each other with a jab. Barboza hits Pearson with a kick to the body and then connects on a right to knock Pearson down on his knees. Barboza is ridiculously quick with his kicks/punches. Pearson recovers and uses his jabs. Pearson catches Barboza off guard with a leg kick. Pearson lands with left as Barboza backs. Barboza scores with a right hand. Pearson uses consistent head movement. Pearson shoots halfway through the round and Barboza moves out of the way. Barboza with a huge right that is blocked. Pearson continues to pick off Barboza with jabs. Barboza connects with a spinning back kick that pushes Pearson back. Pearson is doing a good job with his lead left hooks. Barboza wins the round on the early knockdown but Pearson controlled the rest of the round. 10-9 Barboza.
Round 3:
While most of the foreign media is sitting around in hotel rooms this morning trying to calculate the odds that there will be a reliable internet connection at the HSBC Arena on Saturday night, we still have some odds on actual fights to sort through.
Oddsmakers are generally favoring the Brazilians on the UFC 134 card, as was the crowd at Friday’s weigh-in, not surprisingly. There’s no word on whether oddsmakers believe that the American fighters are “going to die,” as the audience insisted, but we do know who they think is going to win.
Now let’s sort through the betting lines and see where they might be wrong.
Do we really have to have the conversation about whether Okami is a worthwhile underdog pick for those of you looking to ignore reality and get rich quick? Okay, I guess we do, so let’s get it over with. Ask yourself, how does Okami win this? It ain’t by KO and it ain’t by submission, so that leaves 25 minutes worth of grinding as his best option. Can he keep that up against Silva without getting caught by something, somewhere? Doubtful, but not impossible. Even if he gets his wrestle on like Chael Sonnen did, minus the triangle choke, he’d have to absolutely dominate to win a decision over Silva in Rio. Even then, that call could be a riot-starter. My pick: Silva. It’s best saved for the parlay or ignored altogether, but he has too many tools and Okami has too few.
You want an underdog? Look no further than Griffin. He’s big, he’s strong, and he already has a win over Rua. I know, we all have to give Rua a pass on that one because of his poor conditioning for the fight, but how many of those passes does he get? Griffin is always in shape, and he always comes ready to take some punishment. Rua has the home crowd advantage, but Griffin is exactly the kind of fighter who has given him trouble in the past. Look for this fight to go all over the place, and the longer it goes, the worse Rua’s chances get. Griffin may have preferred to fight this rematch in Las Vegas, but I think he can still win it in Rio. My pick: Griffin. I’m a little surprised he’s going off at nearly 2-1, but I’ll take it.
It doesn’t please me to write this, but I think Nogueira made a mistake that he’s about to pay dearly for. It’s not just the choice of opponents, though, yes, Schaub is problematic for him. It’s mainly that, by his own admission, he rushed his rehab from surgery in order to fight on this card. I understand why he wants to fight in front of his countrymen before he retires, but does he really want to come back too soon and take a beating in front of his friends and family? Probably not, but I fear that’s what he’s in for. Even at full power Schaub’s size and speed would give him trouble. After eighteen months away and three surgeries, this is a nightmare scenario. I’m afraid something ugly and quick is going to happen here. My pick: Schaub. Again, it’s parlay material, but there’s just no way I could justify an underdog bet on Big Nog in this fight.
It’s hard for me to envision a worse match-up for Pearson at this point in his career. He’s still trying to get back to where he was before the loss to Cole Miller, and now he gets Barboza, who is a terror on the feet, even if most fans don’t know enough about him. Pearson has more to lose than gain here, and that’s only partially because I think he’ll probably lose. Barboza is too dynamic a striker for him, and he has such an array of attacks. Pearson will come chugging forward at him, but he’ll most likely run right into a brutal assault. His ability to take it and come back with some of his own in the later rounds is his best hope.
My pick: Barboza. You guessed it: parlay.
Luiz Cane (-200) vs. Stanislav Nedkov (+160)
On paper, Nedkov’s record looks impressive. But if your toughest opponents were Travis Wiuff and Kevin Randleman, it doesn’t mean quite as much to be undefeated. Cane has won the easy ones and lost the tough ones so far in his UFC career, but this fight falls somewhere in the middle. Expect Nedkov to be able to push him harder than, say, an Eliot Marshall, but don’t expect too much more. Cane should win this, and it feels a little like the UFC made this match-up with that in mind. Not that it’s a walk-through, but hey, wouldn’t hurt to kick off the pay-per-view with a hard-hitting Brazilian scoring a knockout in front of his home crowd, now would it? My pick: Cane. It should complete my bunch-of-Brazilians-and-Brendan-Schaub parlay quite nicely, I think.
Quick picks:
– Dan Miller (+250) over Rousimar Palhares (-325). You know I have to make some reckless underdog picks, and the undercard is a great place for it. I don’t see Palhares getting a heel hook on a guy like Miller, nor do I see him getting the fight to the ground so easily. So what the hell, let’s take a chance.
– Spencer Fisher (+170) over Thiago Tavares (-210). As long as I’m picking American underdogs to beat Brazilian favorites, put this one on my tab, too. Tavares is a tad overrated, and Fisher doesn’t go away easily.
The ‘For Entertainment Purposes Only’ Parlay: Silva + Schaub + Barboza + Cane.
While most of the foreign media is sitting around in hotel rooms this morning trying to calculate the odds that there will be a reliable internet connection at the HSBC Arena on Saturday night, we still have some odds on actual fights to sort through.
Oddsmakers are generally favoring the Brazilians on the UFC 134 card, as was the crowd at Friday’s weigh-in, not surprisingly. There’s no word on whether oddsmakers believe that the American fighters are “going to die,” as the audience insisted, but we do know who they think is going to win.
Now let’s sort through the betting lines and see where they might be wrong.
Do we really have to have the conversation about whether Okami is a worthwhile underdog pick for those of you looking to ignore reality and get rich quick? Okay, I guess we do, so let’s get it over with. Ask yourself, how does Okami win this? It ain’t by KO and it ain’t by submission, so that leaves 25 minutes worth of grinding as his best option. Can he keep that up against Silva without getting caught by something, somewhere? Doubtful, but not impossible. Even if he gets his wrestle on like Chael Sonnen did, minus the triangle choke, he’d have to absolutely dominate to win a decision over Silva in Rio. Even then, that call could be a riot-starter. My pick: Silva. It’s best saved for the parlay or ignored altogether, but he has too many tools and Okami has too few.
You want an underdog? Look no further than Griffin. He’s big, he’s strong, and he already has a win over Rua. I know, we all have to give Rua a pass on that one because of his poor conditioning for the fight, but how many of those passes does he get? Griffin is always in shape, and he always comes ready to take some punishment. Rua has the home crowd advantage, but Griffin is exactly the kind of fighter who has given him trouble in the past. Look for this fight to go all over the place, and the longer it goes, the worse Rua’s chances get. Griffin may have preferred to fight this rematch in Las Vegas, but I think he can still win it in Rio. My pick: Griffin. I’m a little surprised he’s going off at nearly 2-1, but I’ll take it.
It doesn’t please me to write this, but I think Nogueira made a mistake that he’s about to pay dearly for. It’s not just the choice of opponents, though, yes, Schaub is problematic for him. It’s mainly that, by his own admission, he rushed his rehab from surgery in order to fight on this card. I understand why he wants to fight in front of his countrymen before he retires, but does he really want to come back too soon and take a beating in front of his friends and family? Probably not, but I fear that’s what he’s in for. Even at full power Schaub’s size and speed would give him trouble. After eighteen months away and three surgeries, this is a nightmare scenario. I’m afraid something ugly and quick is going to happen here. My pick: Schaub. Again, it’s parlay material, but there’s just no way I could justify an underdog bet on Big Nog in this fight.
It’s hard for me to envision a worse match-up for Pearson at this point in his career. He’s still trying to get back to where he was before the loss to Cole Miller, and now he gets Barboza, who is a terror on the feet, even if most fans don’t know enough about him. Pearson has more to lose than gain here, and that’s only partially because I think he’ll probably lose. Barboza is too dynamic a striker for him, and he has such an array of attacks. Pearson will come chugging forward at him, but he’ll most likely run right into a brutal assault. His ability to take it and come back with some of his own in the later rounds is his best hope.
My pick: Barboza. You guessed it: parlay.
Luiz Cane (-200) vs. Stanislav Nedkov (+160)
On paper, Nedkov’s record looks impressive. But if your toughest opponents were Travis Wiuff and Kevin Randleman, it doesn’t mean quite as much to be undefeated. Cane has won the easy ones and lost the tough ones so far in his UFC career, but this fight falls somewhere in the middle. Expect Nedkov to be able to push him harder than, say, an Eliot Marshall, but don’t expect too much more. Cane should win this, and it feels a little like the UFC made this match-up with that in mind. Not that it’s a walk-through, but hey, wouldn’t hurt to kick off the pay-per-view with a hard-hitting Brazilian scoring a knockout in front of his home crowd, now would it? My pick: Cane. It should complete my bunch-of-Brazilians-and-Brendan-Schaub parlay quite nicely, I think.
Quick picks:
– Dan Miller (+250) over Rousimar Palhares (-325). You know I have to make some reckless underdog picks, and the undercard is a great place for it. I don’t see Palhares getting a heel hook on a guy like Miller, nor do I see him getting the fight to the ground so easily. So what the hell, let’s take a chance.
– Spencer Fisher (+170) over Thiago Tavares (-210). As long as I’m picking American underdogs to beat Brazilian favorites, put this one on my tab, too. Tavares is a tad overrated, and Fisher doesn’t go away easily.
The ‘For Entertainment Purposes Only’ Parlay: Silva + Schaub + Barboza + Cane.
Filed under: UFCRIO DE JANEIRO — I don’t care what a Fast and the Furious movie tells you, there’s no way you could drag a bank safe through the streets of Rio behind a stolen car. Forget the police, the traffic simply wouldn’t allow it.
RIO DE JANEIRO — I don’t care what a Fast and the Furious movie tells you, there’s no way you could drag a bank safe through the streets of Rio behind a stolen car. Forget the police, the traffic simply wouldn’t allow it.
You could inch it along, maybe. You could pull it through an intersection as the city’s many motorcyclists swerved at suicidal angles around you. You could behave like every other driver in Rio and treat those dotted lines on the pavement as mere suggestions. But the fact is, you’re not going anywhere at any sustained speed.
I came to terms with this during a nighttime ride to Tijuquinha with Brendan Schaub and his entourage. Schaub had been there before, when he was here for a press conference in June, and he promised to bring the kids some gear to train in when he returned for the fight.
As he headed back to fulfill his promise, he knew what to expect. I didn’t.
When I heard the word ‘favela’ associated with Tijuquinha, immediately images of lawless shanty towns filled my mind. When I heard we’d be going at night, I started to question the wisdom of the whole operation. Surely, I reasoned, the UFC wouldn’t let anything happen to Schaub two days before the fight. I decided I’d stick close to him. That is, if we ever made it through the traffic.
Fortunately, I had good travel companions. The man in the backseat next to me was Bony Monteiro. You know those Bony Acai hats you see Brazilian fighters wearing? That’s him. He owns Bony Acai, which means he’s currently doing his best to spread the gospel of the acai berry — a ubiquitous ingredient in Brazil, used in everything from juice to milkshakes, and also eaten in great heaping bowls that my colleague Ariel Helwani became instantly addicted to when we arrived.
“You’ll never get the flu again,” Bony told me when I inquired after acai’s rumored health benefits. “My kids, they don’t even know what the flu is.”
Bony, who hails from Belem, in northern Brazil, turned out to be a great resource to answer all my questions about Rio. Was it true that Brazil worked so Rio could play? “They know how to have fun here,” he replied. Was it true that cariocas almost never moved out of Rio? “Why would you move?” he said. “Great food, beautiful women, even someone in the favela, if he is angry, he can go to the beach and relax. If they could fix the crime, it would be paradise.”
When you’re an American headed to Rio, everybody back home warns you about the crime. They’d have you believe that you can’t walk out of your hotel without being held up and possibly kidnapped. When I told my dad I was coming here, he started forwarding me news stories of foreigners killed or accosted in other South American countries, as if they were all interchangeable when it came to violent crime.
“In Rio, it’s small crime,” Bony told me. “They take your watch, take your bag. In Sao Paulo, it’s big crime. Organized crime. You understand?”
This was one of Bony’s trademark phrases — you understand? — and he used it often in conversation, as if afraid I might be just nodding my head and pretending (something I have absolutely done at least a couple times during this trip). The phrase proved to be the perfect calling card to remind you of his patience and his willingness to explain. He also apologized for his English several times, despite the fact the he spoke the language fluently and eloquently. Nothing could have made me feel worse about speaking zero Portuguese.
Bony was along as one of Schaub’s main sponsors. Thanks to him, as well as to Ecko and RevGear — also Schaub sponsors — the van ahead of us was loaded with bags full of free stuff for the Muay Thai school in the favela.
Only once we arrived I saw that this wasn’t really a favela. Not like the ones you hear about, anyway. Those, Bony explained to me, were communities carved illegally out of forest land, which is essentially what all Rio would be if not for human development. That aspect of the land is evident everywhere you look. The Rio skyline is dotted with hills and mountains that rise sharply in steep lumps, covered in lush green foliage and, often, the thrown-together dwellings of the favelas.
In America, the neighborhoods usually get more affluent as you head up the hills. In Rio, the hills are often favela territory. As a result of the sudden deforestation that accompanies them, and the steep angle they’re built at, mudslides frequently bring them sliding back down. People die. What few possessions they have are lost. Tragedy on an almost regularly scheduled time table.
Then the whole process of building and expansion starts all over again.
And yet, few people in Rio seem inclined to do anything about the favelas. It’s an unfortunate situation for everyone, they shrug, but what can you do? It is, in its own way, the most libertarian of all approaches. A very small percentage of Brazil’s land is considered protected, so people carve out a life for themselves, pirate some electricity, and soon a village of urban refugees becomes its own community.
“In Brazil, we don’t have the problem of racism, like you have,” Bony explained to me. “People don’t care what color your skin is. They just care about rich or poor.”
As affluent, tourist-friendly Ipanema gives way to the outlying neighborhoods on the route to Tijuquinha, the distinction between rich and poor becomes clearer. Dimly lit streets. Handwritten signs advertising business and churches. You can feel the damp heaviness of the forest close around you, and hear the dull beat of the insects in the dark. But as we pull up a back alley and park next to the concrete basketball court where the Tropa Thai classes are held, it’s clear that this is no shanty town.
“The people here wouldn’t say that they live in a favela,” said Dennis Asche of Connection Rio, who helped to link Schaub up with Eduardo Pachu, who’s been operating the Tropa Thai classes for over ten years, bringing free martial arts training to the favelas. “It’s just a poor community. They don’t have much, but they still have a community.”
Classes were already in session on the well-lit basketball court as we made our way inside. Around forty kids, from toddlers up through teenagers, were gathered in rows wearing grimy hand wraps. The hand wraps and the white t-shirts from the city of Rio, which has only recently started to get behind the program, were all they had to train in. Once they saw the two huge duffel bags that Schaub and his wrestling coach, Leister Bowling, plopped down on the court, they must have known that was about to change.
First though, it was practice time. They did punch drills. They did push-ups and crunches. I watched as two little girls took turns jumping over one another, the sound of their bare feet thudding against the pavement as they landed. The skill levels ranged from surprisingly good to seriously uncoordinated, but that was hardly the point, Asche explained.
“Instead of selling drugs or getting into something negative, they fight,” he said. “They come here and train.”
With Schaub’s visit they also got a chance to learn that, when they were involved in some positive pursuit like sports, people took notice. People helped. Even if those people came from far away and didn’t understand a word of what they were saying.
That part became evident when the gear came out and got passed around. Boxing gloves, shin pads, thai pads, focus mitts — piles and piles of them, donated by the sponsors. Schaub walked over and handed a pair of boxing gloves to a little boy who couldn’t have been older than six or seven. He held them in his hands, looking from one to the other, but apparently having no idea what to do with them.
“Here,” Schaub said, holding the glove open for him. “Push your hand down in there.”
The kid stared. Schaub mimed the act for him. Nothing.
After a couple days in Rio, I knew how both Schaub and the kid felt. When you don’t speak the same language, suddenly we’re all just cavemen performing hand gestures that seem perfectly clear to us, but mean nothing to anyone else.
Thankfully, one of the bilingual Brazilians with us came to the rescue. Soon the kid had his hands inside the gloves, and within minutes the court filled with the unmistakable cracking of gloves against pads. Tropa Thai was no longer a basketball court where kids shadow-boxed in old handwraps. Now it was a true training ground.
Then it was time for Schaub, this enormous, mysterious foreigner who had showed up one night like Santa Claus with cauliflower ear, bearing free gifts, to get back in his van and go.
He had a fight to think about, after all. A chance to show up at the HSBC Arena and get booed by all the people who either didn’t know or didn’t care about tonight’s charity, who would rise to the their feet at the weigh-ins the following afternoon and shout “vai morrer” — you’re going to die — as he smiled and flexed in the same Bony Acai cap he’s been wearing since he got here (just one more reason Bony loves him).
But then, he knows to expect that. He is fighting a Brazilian hero, and this is a country that holds its heroes close.
“We need more heroes who are not just soccer players,” Bony told me on the ride home, again picking our way through the traffic. “Now, it’s starting to happen. Fighters are becoming our heroes.”
It’s happening, but slowly. The same way you get anywhere in this city.
RIO DE JANEIRO — The good news for the Americans on the UFC 134 fight card is that at least one of them got through the pre-fight weigh-ins on Friday without getting booed. That would be Ian Loveland, who fights Canadian Yves Jabouin in the first bout of the night, also known as the only fight on the card that doesn’t feature at least one Brazilian.
When Loveland and Jabouin stepped on the scales, the crowd at the HSBC Arena could hardly be bothered to pay attention, which, in a way, let both fighters off the hook. The other foreigners on the card weren’t so lucky.
Not that this reception should surprise any of the non-Brazilian fighters. When you’re fighting someone like Mauricio “Shogun” Rua or Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in Rio, and you’re a gringo from the USA, you can’t exactly expect a warm reception.
As Griffin put it at Thursday’s press conference when it was suggested that he, Schaub, and Yushin Okami would have the entire world against them on Saturday night: “It’s not the whole world; it’s just Brazil.”
But for many of the Brazilian fighters, facing off against a series of foreigners in their own backyard in the first UFC event in Rio is a little like taking on the rest of the world, or at least taking on the responsibility for an entire nation, as Anderson Silva explained.
“It’s like Brazil vs. Argentina in Macarana Stadium,” he said, putting it in soccer terms any Brazilian would understand. As he added later, “A lot of idols come and go, but we’re fighting to reach our place.”
The Brazilians on the card certainly had the fans at the weigh-ins firmly behind them, even if the loudest boos were saved for Chael Sonnen, who only appeared via the giant video screen during one of the pre-fight promo packages.
The most half-hearted boos? Those were aimed at Bulgarian Stanislov Nedkov and Englishman Ross Pearson, who are slated to take on Brazilians Luiz Cane and Edson Barboza, respectively.
But even then, it felt more like a perfunctory habit than anything else. Pearson very nearly managed to turn the crowd around by stepping off the scale and rehydrating with help from a coconut and a straw. At least to some degree, it worked. The boos died down, and the crowd lost the urge to inform him of his impending death.
Well played, Mr. Pearson. It might take slightly more to bring about a change of heart toward Sonnen, however.
RIO DE JANEIRO — The good news for the Americans on the UFC 134 fight card is that at least one of them got through the pre-fight weigh-ins on Friday without getting booed. That would be Ian Loveland, who fights Canadian Yves Jabouin in the first bout of the night, also known as the only fight on the card that doesn’t feature at least one Brazilian.
When Loveland and Jabouin stepped on the scales, the crowd at the HSBC Arena could hardly be bothered to pay attention, which, in a way, let both fighters off the hook. The other foreigners on the card weren’t so lucky.
Not that this reception should surprise any of the non-Brazilian fighters. When you’re fighting someone like Mauricio “Shogun” Rua or Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in Rio, and you’re a gringo from the USA, you can’t exactly expect a warm reception.
As Griffin put it at Thursday’s press conference when it was suggested that he, Schaub, and Yushin Okami would have the entire world against them on Saturday night: “It’s not the whole world; it’s just Brazil.”
But for many of the Brazilian fighters, facing off against a series of foreigners in their own backyard in the first UFC event in Rio is a little like taking on the rest of the world, or at least taking on the responsibility for an entire nation, as Anderson Silva explained.
“It’s like Brazil vs. Argentina in Macarana Stadium,” he said, putting it in soccer terms any Brazilian would understand. As he added later, “A lot of idols come and go, but we’re fighting to reach our place.”
The Brazilians on the card certainly had the fans at the weigh-ins firmly behind them, even if the loudest boos were saved for Chael Sonnen, who only appeared via the giant video screen during one of the pre-fight promo packages.
The most half-hearted boos? Those were aimed at Bulgarian Stanislov Nedkov and Englishman Ross Pearson, who are slated to take on Brazilians Luiz Cane and Edson Barboza, respectively.
But even then, it felt more like a perfunctory habit than anything else. Pearson very nearly managed to turn the crowd around by stepping off the scale and rehydrating with help from a coconut and a straw. At least to some degree, it worked. The boos died down, and the crowd lost the urge to inform him of his impending death.
Well played, Mr. Pearson. It might take slightly more to bring about a change of heart toward Sonnen, however.
RIO DE JANEIRO — With his second straight fight against an MMA legend now just a day away, Brendan Schaub is approaching a point of no return. Up until now, he’s been quietly moving up the ranks — an up-and-comer.
If he beats Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 134, however, he knows the days of being just another heavyweight contender will likely be at an end. From there, as he put it, “There’s only a couple fights left for me, if I do my job on Saturday night.”
And yeah, he’s considered what those potential fights might look like.
“They could give me the winner of Cain [Velasquez]-[Junior] dos Santos and I don’t think many people would argue about it,” said Schaub. “Or you could give me a big name like [Brock] Lesnar.”
Then again, there’s still that conditional aspect of his statement — “if I do my job on Saturday night” — to consider. That’s why they have the fights, after all. It’s also why you get weeks to prepare for them.
Instead of doing his entire training camp at the Grudge Training Center in Denver, like usual, Schaub traveled from Florida to New Mexico to prepare for Nogueira. He worked with Rashad Evans and the boys at Imperal Athletics in Boca Raton, then went to Albuquerque to see Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn.
The one man he didn’t see all that much of this time was trainer Trevor Wittman, who will be missing from Schaub’s corner for the first time in Schaub’s professional career.
“I’ve never had a corner make or break the fight, so it’s not a big deal,” he said. Which is not to say it made no difference to be without Wittman this time around.
Before his fight with Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic in March, Wittman had to ban Schaub from the gym temporarily, strictly for his own good. Schaub’s always been a gym rat, and even he admitted that he’d worked himself to the point that it was counter-productive.
So how did he handle the impluse to overtrain this time around?
“Worst I’ve ever done,” he grinned. “I had no one to give me an intervention. The last week or so I’ve had time to rest though, so I feel good.”
What many onlookers are wondering is how Nogueira feels heading into this fight. At 35 years old and with three surgeries separating him from his last fight eighteen months ago, Nogueira’s physical condition is still a question mark. Schaub seems to choosing to believe that his opponent will be in prime shape, since the fight has high stakes for both men.
“There’s pressure on both of us. There’s pressure on him fighting in front of his home crowd, and there’s pressure on me. There’s title implications in this fight, so it’s a big deal for both of us.”
Of course, if Schaub wins and the UFC offers him Lesnar rather than a title shot, Schaub would take it in a heart beat, he said.
“Oh yeah. All day. If that’s what they want to do, give me Lesnar after this fight, I’m cool with it.”
In order to even have that conversation, first he has to get past Nogueira. The Brazilian might bring a battered body into the cage, but he also brings the experience that Schaub still lacks.
And don’t tell Big Nog that experience doesn’t matter in the fight game. He’s earned his. As you can tell just by looking at the man, he also paid for it in full.
RIO DE JANEIRO — With his second straight fight against an MMA legend now just a day away, Brendan Schaub is approaching a point of no return. Up until now, he’s been quietly moving up the ranks — an up-and-comer.
If he beats Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 134, however, he knows the days of being just another heavyweight contender will likely be at an end. From there, as he put it, “There’s only a couple fights left for me, if I do my job on Saturday night.”
And yeah, he’s considered what those potential fights might look like.
“They could give me the winner of Cain [Velasquez]-[Junior] dos Santos and I don’t think many people would argue about it,” said Schaub. “Or you could give me a big name like [Brock] Lesnar.”
Then again, there’s still that conditional aspect of his statement — “if I do my job on Saturday night” — to consider. That’s why they have the fights, after all. It’s also why you get weeks to prepare for them.
Instead of doing his entire training camp at the Grudge Training Center in Denver, like usual, Schaub traveled from Florida to New Mexico to prepare for Nogueira. He worked with Rashad Evans and the boys at Imperal Athletics in Boca Raton, then went to Albuquerque to see Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn.
The one man he didn’t see all that much of this time was trainer Trevor Wittman, who will be missing from Schaub’s corner for the first time in Schaub’s professional career.
“I’ve never had a corner make or break the fight, so it’s not a big deal,” he said. Which is not to say it made no difference to be without Wittman this time around.
Before his fight with Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic in March, Wittman had to ban Schaub from the gym temporarily, strictly for his own good. Schaub’s always been a gym rat, and even he admitted that he’d worked himself to the point that it was counter-productive.
So how did he handle the impluse to overtrain this time around?
“Worst I’ve ever done,” he grinned. “I had no one to give me an intervention. The last week or so I’ve had time to rest though, so I feel good.”
What many onlookers are wondering is how Nogueira feels heading into this fight. At 35 years old and with three surgeries separating him from his last fight eighteen months ago, Nogueira’s physical condition is still a question mark. Schaub seems to choosing to believe that his opponent will be in prime shape, since the fight has high stakes for both men.
“There’s pressure on both of us. There’s pressure on him fighting in front of his home crowd, and there’s pressure on me. There’s title implications in this fight, so it’s a big deal for both of us.”
Of course, if Schaub wins and the UFC offers him Lesnar rather than a title shot, Schaub would take it in a heart beat, he said.
“Oh yeah. All day. If that’s what they want to do, give me Lesnar after this fight, I’m cool with it.”
In order to even have that conversation, first he has to get past Nogueira. The Brazilian might bring a battered body into the cage, but he also brings the experience that Schaub still lacks.
And don’t tell Big Nog that experience doesn’t matter in the fight game. He’s earned his. As you can tell just by looking at the man, he also paid for it in full.
RIO DE JANEIRO — You don’t go to Brazil on a whim. You don’t come home one day and say to the girlfriend who insists that you’re incapable of spontaneity, ‘Pack your bags, we’re leaving for Rio this weekend.’ Try that, and you might learn that American citizens who touch down on Brazilian soil without a visa get immediately fined and sent home. Then see how you like being spontaneous.
Nah, playa. Brazil requires some planning. You pay your $140 (exactly what the USA charges Brazilian citizens for a visa, the Brazilian consulate website points out, calling theirs a “reciprocity fee” — in other words, we only do this to you because you do it to us), you turn in your application, your travel itinerary, and proof that you have enough money to get home, then you wait. A week or so later you’re standing at the airport, being asked if you’re aware of the recommended vaccine for yellow fever.
“Sure,” you say, clearly lying. A couple connecting flights and 15 or so hours later, you wake up in Rio de Janeiro, wondering if that nagging cough is going to turn out to be something serious.
If you’re like me, you read a guide book. It’s helpful, but only to a point. If you want to know the Portuguese phrases for “Please take me to the hospital” or “Please stop flirting with me,” they’re in there. But certain information is tough to know what to do with, like when it says the tap water is safe to drink “in theory.”
Other claims are questionable, but at least somewhat verifiable. For instance, according to the guidebook, Rio residents — “cariocas,” as they’re known in Brazil — love their city so much, they almost never leave for any length of time. A person from somewhere else in Brazil might move to Rio, the guidebook claims, but a carioca will rarely move out of their beloved city.
“That’s true,” Antonio Pedro Figueroa de Mello, Rio’s secretary of tourism, told me when I cornered him at Wednesday’s UFC 134 open workouts. “We love this beautiful city and that’s why we have cariocas all over the world. You’re going to be a carioca, even when you leave.”
Granted, here was a man who had good reason to agree with the characterization of Rio as Brazil’s greatest city, but as he surveyed the fan response to the workouts at Copacabana beach, he couldn’t help but be pleased with the fact that the UFC was bringing this type of attention to his city.
“The UFC was born here with the Gracie family,” he said. “Now they come back for Rio. We want to do this to promote the city.”
Of course, Rio’s repuation among Brazilians isn’t all positive. When I told a Brazilian acquaintence that I was headed here, she apologized for not having much to tell me about the city.
“I’m not from there,” she explained. “I work for a living.”
As it said in the guide book: Brazil works, so that Rio can play. Don’t tell that to de Mello, of course, who was hard at work selling people on Rio during the workouts.
“We work a lot so people can play more,” he said with a sheepish grin. “Play better.”
Judging by the crowd for the workout, there were at least a couple thousand cariocas who had managed to escape work for a few hours in the middle of the week. They danced. They sang. They launched into a chant or two. The chants and songs, I would learn, are a staple at soccer games among Rio’s professional teams.
“Vou festejar. O seu sofrer…Pode chora!” goes one delightfully mean song. It roughly translates to, “I’ll celebrate your suffering…You can cry!”
Another, used by opponents who worry that Flamengo fans might be feeling too good about themselves, retort by singing “Sempre te na Mare” — you’ll always be in Mare. Mare just happens to be one of Rio’s most notorious favelas, or slums. It’d be a little like opposing fans responding to a Detroit Lions touchdown by shouting, ‘Hey, you’re still stuck in Detroit!’ As if they need any reminder.
Soccer (sorry, I just can’t bring myself to call it football) is never far from the minds of cariocas, even when they’re talking MMA. The big stir at Thursday’s press conference inside the opulent Copacabana Palace hotel was that Anderson Silva would be making his entrance on Saturday night wearing a Corinthians team jersey. Since Corinthians is a Sao Paulo team, there was the slightest suggestion that the Rio fans who have flocked all around Silva this week might not respond so favorably to this.
Silva smiled his sly grin and pointed out to the eager throng of Brazilian media that, hey, at least this symbolized some kind of unison between Brazil’s number one sport and MMA, calling it a potential “new phase” for both MMA and soccer fans.
Plus, Silva said, in fighting he’s able to “revert my frustration at not having become a soccer player.”
But, as one Brazilian explained to me later, it’s more than just a joking matter. Seeing Silva get such a huge response from his countrymen, and seeing him allied with a major soccer team, it all serves to remind Brazilians that with MMA fighters, they now have new role models on the national stage.
“In America, you have many heroes,” he explained. “Football players, basketball players, rappers. In Brazil, we only have [soccer] players.”
Now, perhaps, Brazilians have woken up to the fact that another of their compatriots is the best in the world at something other than soccer, and he’s bringing his talents to Rio for one special night.
“We have the opportunity to change the heroes in our country and change the heroes in Rio,” Silva said at the press conference, as sparkling lights from the chandelier played on the vaulted ceilings of the Cobacabana Palace hotel.
A few feet away sat Yushin Okami, glowering into the table top, the headphones on his ears playing an English translation of Silva’s words that were just as useless to him as the original Portuguese.
If only there was a Brazilian soccer fan nearby who knew Japanese, he could have put Silva’s implied message for Okami into a familiar song: Vou festejar. O seu sofrer…Pode chora.
RIO DE JANEIRO — You don’t go to Brazil on a whim. You don’t come home one day and say to the girlfriend who insists that you’re incapable of spontaneity, ‘Pack your bags, we’re leaving for Rio this weekend.’ Try that, and you might learn that American citizens who touch down on Brazilian soil without a visa get immediately fined and sent home. Then see how you like being spontaneous.
Nah, playa. Brazil requires some planning. You pay your $140 (exactly what the USA charges Brazilian citizens for a visa, the Brazilian consulate website points out, calling theirs a “reciprocity fee” — in other words, we only do this to you because you do it to us), you turn in your application, your travel itinerary, and proof that you have enough money to get home, then you wait. A week or so later you’re standing at the airport, being asked if you’re aware of the recommended vaccine for yellow fever.
“Sure,” you say, clearly lying. A couple connecting flights and 15 or so hours later, you wake up in Rio de Janeiro, wondering if that nagging cough is going to turn out to be something serious.
If you’re like me, you read a guide book. It’s helpful, but only to a point. If you want to know the Portuguese phrases for “Please take me to the hospital” or “Please stop flirting with me,” they’re in there. But certain information is tough to know what to do with, like when it says the tap water is safe to drink “in theory.”
Other claims are questionable, but at least somewhat verifiable. For instance, according to the guidebook, Rio residents — “cariocas,” as they’re known in Brazil — love their city so much, they almost never leave for any length of time. A person from somewhere else in Brazil might move to Rio, the guidebook claims, but a carioca will rarely move out of their beloved city.
“That’s true,” Antonio Pedro Figueroa de Mello, Rio’s secretary of tourism, told me when I cornered him at Wednesday’s UFC 134 open workouts. “We love this beautiful city and that’s why we have cariocas all over the world. You’re going to be a carioca, even when you leave.”
Granted, here was a man who had good reason to agree with the characterization of Rio as Brazil’s greatest city, but as he surveyed the fan response to the workouts at Copacabana beach, he couldn’t help but be pleased with the fact that the UFC was bringing this type of attention to his city.
“The UFC was born here with the Gracie family,” he said. “Now they come back for Rio. We want to do this to promote the city.”
Of course, Rio’s repuation among Brazilians isn’t all positive. When I told a Brazilian acquaintence that I was headed here, she apologized for not having much to tell me about the city.
“I’m not from there,” she explained. “I work for a living.”
As it said in the guide book: Brazil works, so that Rio can play. Don’t tell that to de Mello, of course, who was hard at work selling people on Rio during the workouts.
“We work a lot so people can play more,” he said with a sheepish grin. “Play better.”
Judging by the crowd for the workout, there were at least a couple thousand cariocas who had managed to escape work for a few hours in the middle of the week. They danced. They sang. They launched into a chant or two. The chants and songs, I would learn, are a staple at soccer games among Rio’s professional teams.
“Vou festejar. O seu sofrer…Pode chora!” goes one delightfully mean song. It roughly translates to, “I’ll celebrate your suffering…You can cry!”
Another, used by opponents who worry that Flamengo fans might be feeling too good about themselves, retort by singing “Sempre te na Mare” — you’ll always be in Mare. Mare just happens to be one of Rio’s most notorious favelas, or slums. It’d be a little like opposing fans responding to a Detroit Lions touchdown by shouting, ‘Hey, you’re still stuck in Detroit!’ As if they need any reminder.
Soccer (sorry, I just can’t bring myself to call it football) is never far from the minds of cariocas, even when they’re talking MMA. The big stir at Thursday’s press conference inside the opulent Copacabana Palace hotel was that Anderson Silva would be making his entrance on Saturday night wearing a Corinthians team jersey. Since Corinthians is a Sao Paulo team, there was the slightest suggestion that the Rio fans who have flocked all around Silva this week might not respond so favorably to this.
Silva smiled his sly grin and pointed out to the eager throng of Brazilian media that, hey, at least this symbolized some kind of unison between Brazil’s number one sport and MMA, calling it a potential “new phase” for both MMA and soccer fans.
Plus, Silva said, in fighting he’s able to “revert my frustration at not having become a soccer player.”
But, as one Brazilian explained to me later, it’s more than just a joking matter. Seeing Silva get such a huge response from his countrymen, and seeing him allied with a major soccer team, it all serves to remind Brazilians that with MMA fighters, they now have new role models on the national stage.
“In America, you have many heroes,” he explained. “Football players, basketball players, rappers. In Brazil, we only have [soccer] players.”
Now, perhaps, Brazilians have woken up to the fact that another of their compatriots is the best in the world at something other than soccer, and he’s bringing his talents to Rio for one special night.
“We have the opportunity to change the heroes in our country and change the heroes in Rio,” Silva said at the press conference, as sparkling lights from the chandelier played on the vaulted ceilings of the Cobacabana Palace hotel.
A few feet away sat Yushin Okami, glowering into the table top, the headphones on his ears playing an English translation of Silva’s words that were just as useless to him as the original Portuguese.
If only there was a Brazilian soccer fan nearby who knew Japanese, he could have put Silva’s implied message for Okami into a familiar song: Vou festejar. O seu sofrer…Pode chora.
RIO DE JANEIRO — This is the UFC 134 live blog for Ross Pearson vs. Edson Barboza, a lightweight bout on tonight’s UFC: Rio pay-per-view at the HSBC Arena in Brazil.
While most of the foreign media is sitting around in hotel rooms this morning trying to calculate the odds that there will be a reliable internet connection at the HSBC Arena on Saturday night, we still have some odds on actual fights to sort through.
RIO DE JANEIRO — I don’t care what a Fast and the Furious movie tells you, there’s no way you could drag a bank safe through the streets of Rio behind a stolen car. Forget the police, the traffic simply wouldn’t allow it.
Only once we arrived I saw that this wasn’t really a favela. Not like the ones you hear about, anyway. Those, Bony explained to me, were communities carved illegally out of forest land, which is essentially what all Rio would be if not for human development. That aspect of the land is evident everywhere you look. The Rio skyline is dotted with hills and mountains that rise sharply in steep lumps, covered in lush green foliage and, often, the thrown-together dwellings of the favelas. 
“Instead of selling drugs or getting into something negative, they fight,” he said. “They come here and train.”
Then it was time for Schaub, this enormous, mysterious foreigner who had showed up one night like Santa Claus with cauliflower ear, bearing free gifts, to get back in his van and go. 
RIO DE JANEIRO — The good news for the Americans on the 
RIO DE JANEIRO — With his second straight fight against an MMA legend now just a day away, 
RIO DE JANEIRO — You don’t go to Brazil on a whim. You don’t come home one day and say to the girlfriend who insists that you’re incapable of spontaneity, ‘Pack your bags, we’re leaving for Rio this weekend.’ Try that, and you might learn that American citizens who touch down on Brazilian soil without a visa get immediately fined and sent home. Then see how you like being spontaneous.
Now, perhaps, Brazilians have woken up to the fact that another of their compatriots is the best in the world at something other than soccer, and he’s bringing his talents to Rio for one special night.