Author: By Martins Denis

A look back at the time UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo spent in the WEC will make you realize that after a few of his knockouts in the blue cage, he started dancing to celebrate his victories.

This tradition repeated itself time and time again, and while it was hard to understand what kind of rhythm Aldo was trying to emulate, you also laughed at the stance and moves the 145-pound kingpin performed in those times, and actually looked forward to the idea that if Aldo mauled his opponent, we’d see a dance or witness him leaving the cage to celebrate with the fans in the arena.

That was the trademark of Aldo’s early days in the WEC, but once he moved to UFC and got his belt, we never saw these moves again. First, because he defended the belt twice, both by decision, and second…well, there is no second. So where exactly were those moves, Aldo?

He laughs.

“That was part of the excitement I felt after each victory in the WEC. I wasn’t like, ‘if I beat the guy I’ll dance like this or like that.’ I just played around with it during training, joking with my teammates, and then after the fights I did it.”

Aldo mentioned how pumped he was those times, with every obliteration of an opponent crowned by those funny moves, oops, the dances. That said, something happened when the champion was imported to the UFC. We didn’t see knockouts, we didn’t see dances; perhaps a different Aldo is now fighting for the UFC. The champion disagrees, but he does discuss the difference between the organizations.

“The UFC gets much more attention, and of course those who didn’t know me before but went to search my footage, they saw what I did in the WEC,” he said. “I feel like them, like some pieces of my game were missing. But what I can say? I’m back, hungry, very well trained, and I’ll search for the KO and try to make it happen.”

“Plus, more publicity means more studying, more strategy, and guys come to fight avoiding my creativity,” Aldo continues. “It’s not like in the WEC times, when they were unsure of what will this guy will come out with next? So this is not just trying to knock their head off, but there is an elite opponent ready to capitalize on my mistakes and spoil things for me.”

That was probably what we saw during his two title defenses against Mark Hominick (UFC 129) and Kenny Florian (UFC 136). It wasn’t that Aldo looked completely different from the WEC times, but for those who were used to see his flying knees and combos, it seemed Aldo wasn’t training these showcase moves anymore. But he was.

“I never stopped training flying knees, and my standup game is much better than it was in the WEC, but like I mentioned, we have worthy talent standing on the other side of the cage,” he says. “WEC had too, but in the UFC, the opponents have more footage and they are taking advantage of this fact. Anyway, I’m fighting in Rio de Janeiro, with the support of my fans, so I’ll push the pace and get back on the road to knockouts.”

Fighting in Rio de Janeiro is a fuel to Aldo, as he hasn’t fought here since 2007, and when he did, the results were usually fantastic. There was a 20 second KO via soccer kicks over Aritano Barbosa in 2005, and a unanimous decision over ultra-tough Fabio Mello, just to name two. The fight against Barbosa was a memorable one, and not just for the result, but because it showed the stark contrast between fighting in Rio nearly seven years ago compared to fighting here now with the UFC in his adopted home city.

“That fight was (laughs)…we were starting, the crowd was on their feet because no seats were available, and I got pumped about that,” he says. “It was a sold out place with people screaming and giving me their support, and man, I’m seeing this scene again now, but with a bigger crowd, everybody able to sit down, and I’ll go for the knockout with the support of my hometown fans.”

What was first seen during the UFC’s return to Brazil last August will again be seen for UFC 142, and Aldo believes that the support of his Brazilian fans is going to be an extra weapon against his challenger, the powerhouse wrestler and undefeated Team Alpha Male member, Chad Mendes.

“After you get a belt, your dream is to headline an event like I’m doing now against Mendes,” said Aldo. “I feel at home fighting in Rio, and my friends, family and of course my fans will be closer to me and it’s all I need to overcome Mendes.”

But Aldo doesn’t fool himself, as just having the crowd behind him doesn’t win fights. If that was a reality, every single time people fought outside their country it would be a guaranteed defeat. So to boost his chances, the Brazilian brought aboard a high level wrestler in former UFC lightweight title challenger Gray Maynard, a worthy addition when you are going to face a great wrestler like Mendes.

“Training with Gray was an eye opener for my takedown defense, and our connection was great,” he said. “The importance of acquiring an elite wrestler like Gray will be seen. He has been doing it since he was a kid, and his tips, his advice, and his strategy are some things I’ll be using on the night of UFC RIO. I learned a lot, and now it’s time to get it on.”

So, now it time to dance again?

“He’ll lose his undefeated record on January 14th; I see that happening,” he says. “And if the KO happens, I’ll have a surprise for the fans, indeed (laughs).”

A pro since 2005, Erick “Indio” Silva, the Brazilian welterweight who makes his second Octagon appearance this weekend at UFC 142 against veteran Carlo Prater, was living a typical fighter’s life when he began competing in the sport. Working at his uncle’s construction supply store during the day and training at night to compete in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Silva was able to compile a respectable record in the early days of his career.

He was still a purple belt with some important wins when a chance to debut in MMA was presented to him. With confidence in the gentle art and without any significant striking ability, Silva was able to use his courage and ground technique to dispatch his first opponent ever by submission in the first stanza. That was mission accomplished for the moment, but Silva realized that he needed more, as the “top of the food chain” was his goal.

“The first step was to stop with my other job, because I needed to dedicate myself to martial arts,” he says. “The next step was starting to work as a BJJ instructor, even though I was just a purple belt. I was training during the afternoon with my professor Rodrigo Damm, and later I taught my students and this was the beginning.”

As a purple belt, the man who a few years later would become a UFC fighter took a lesson when he was still an amateur competitor at World Cup of BJJ.

“Everybody likes to talk about conquests, medals and etc, but I got very good experience being in fourth place of this competition,” he says. “I fought around seven guys from all around the world: Japan, France, etc. After I beat the seventh opponent, I said to myself, ‘this gold medal is mine,’ so I faced a guy from Rio de Janeiro and lost to him, and ended up in place number four.”

Nowadays with 13 victories and just one defeat (with 1 NC), Silva – a former middleweight in his early fights and now a 170-pounder – was still a fighter looking for recognition when a chance to train with the best in business appeared. After getting to know veteran manager Alex Davis, the Vila Velha native asked him to meet guys like the UFC’s 185-pound kingpin Anderson Silva, former Pride star Rogério Nogueira, former Pride/UFC champ “Minotauro” Nogueira, and former Strikeforce light heavyweight title holder Rafael Cavalcante, almost like a fan meets his idols. But he never imagined that in time, he would be part of the team and share the mats and rings with men he considered heroes.

“Davis said he was a personal friend of the Nogueira brothers, so I asked him for a meeting with my idols,” he said. “But I never imagined I would train in the same gym or would fight on the same card (like what happened at UFC 134 with Anderson and Minotauro). That said, the emotion I felt when we fought on the same day back in August was indescribable.”

With back and forth travels between the cities of Vila Velha and Rio de Janeiro, Silva used to train in his hometown until two and a half weeks before his fights. Then he took a trip to Rio de Janeiro to finish the camp with the Team Nogueira squad. The union was a success, and Silva hasn’t lost a fight since 2006, dispatching nine opponents (plus one NC), including his Octagon debut as he’s become a force in Brazil.

“We have good sparring in my city, but since 2008 I have a friendship with Team Nogueira and X-Gym with Rogerio Camoes and Josuel Distak. I didn’t look for it because I wanted to leave my region and live in Rio de Janeiro. The team and the union are the most important things. I feel like they welcomed me since then. Once I signed with UFC, I felt that I should do my whole camp here, so I’m preparing myself from the first step to the last one here with Team Nogueira and X-Gym.”

The outcome of this preparation? A 40 second blitz over fellow countryman Luis Ramos back in August. The quick knockout put everybody on their feet thanks to the lethal combination of capitalizing on a foe’s mistake and, without mercy, scoring a KO of the Night worthy performance.

“The sensation was great. It was the first ever KO of UFC 134, and with the crowd screaming – I can’t describe it,” he said. “I was very well prepared, more than I ever was. The punch connected like we expected it and it was game over. I didn’t plan to celebrate with that spin; that was just the level of excitement I had at that moment. I went back to the times when I was a kid on the streets doing spins (laughs). I was among the big guys, great names, guys who are my inspirations, and I was performing on the undercard, so I felt like I needed to call for the attention and I think I got it. I showed the reason I was signed to the UFC.”

Now Silva’s intention is to cement his name into the minds of fans and insiders, similar to what the most famous Silvas – Anderson and Wanderlei – have already done. To start, Erick has had to learn how to deal with opponent changes. What happened before his UFC debut (when Mike Swick was forced out of their bout) happened again, as newcomer Siyar Bahadurzada was sidelined due to an injury and replaced by WEC and Strikeforce veteran Prater. But Silva’s unbothered by the change in plans.

“I’m prepared for everything because I know this can happen, so I believe in what I can do and I focus 100 percent on my performance and not on what the opponent will do. The UFC is an event where the best want to stay, so good training is a key point, as we worked hard on every single aspect so we can deliver inside the Octagon,” Silva said. “I had one month to work on the strategy for Carlo Prater, and it wasn’t the type of change where you have less than a couple of days. I got to study him and I’m relaxed and ready to go.”

There is no doubt that when Junior Assuncao got the call for his first UFC fight five years ago, the quote “a dream come true” was one of the many that define what an appearance in the organization means to professional fighters from all corners of the Earth. The significance of this move for newcomers or veterans who have been pursuing spots inside the famous Octagon for years is the certainty that the blood, tears and sweat spent in the gym and on the local circuit are finally paying off.

But once you get inside, performing on the elite level against the best in the business can turn a dream into a nightmare if you realize that your best at that moment is not enough. Assuncao debuted by losing to ultra tough Kurt Pellegrino by submission, then dispatched Brit Dave Lee in the same fashion before having the last fight of that first stint in the UFC against top contender and TUF5 winner Nate Diaz. Recalling what Assuncao thought after the loss to Diaz is nearly impossible, but we can imagine the questions:

“What really happened?”

“Is my time in the Octagon over?”

But since we are talking about a combat sport here, MMA is a continuous challenge and one where there is ample room for improvement, so the former UFC fighter always wants to get back to where he was. Eager for his return to the elite of this sport, the warrior starts mauling foe after foe until that phone call brings him back to the UFC again. That’s just what Assuncao did for about four years.

“I didn’t fight in the UFC since 2007, and from that time until today learned a lot and I matured a lot,” Assuncao says of the life outside the UFC. “During these four years out of the organization, I put all my effort and focus on returning with more experience. When I lost to Nate Diaz, I put it in my mind that I wanted to get back. I took four years to make it happen – with blood, tears and scars. And my plan is the belt. Getting back to the UFC is a dream coming true, and I hope this becomes a kind of example to other fighters who competed in UFC and are trying to return. Believe in your dreams, keep your focus and don’t give up.”

The walking papers of UFC are eyes openers too, as Assuncao realized that the game does not involve only fighting, but checking on the mistakes he made the first time around in order to not repeat them a second time. So changes are necessary.

“I am 30-years old and I have not lost a fight for about four years,” he said. “I learned from the defeats I had inside the Octagon as well as outside of it. I think I stepped in for the second time very differently because now I’m a 100% pro. I do not teach martial arts classes anymore, and my focus in exclusively on fighting. I want to fight for next four, five years and win a belt during this time.”

And he’s doing it at featherweight, as opposed to the 155 pounds he competed at during his first stay in the UFC.

“I was a small lightweight,” he said. “Off training my weight is around 165-171. So I re-did my diet and once I began only training MMA, the adjustment was good. The idea of becoming a 145 pounder was the correct move, because the training and the routine helped me to stay in shape.”

Early on during his rough road back to UFC, Assuncao was matched against Torrance Taylor, and a defeat by unanimous decision in May of 2008 was an unexpected blemish on the Brazilian’s résumé. It complicated matters, but Assuncao’s mind had no room for doubts as his desire to not give up was louder than any setback.

“The world isn’t perfect,” he jokes. “I returned to UFC with seven victories in eight fights, and I wanted eight in eight. I thought that defeat would harm my plan of returning to the UFC, but my last fight was the pivotal point, because I never felt so much responsibility like that day. I knew a seventh victory could be my ticket to get back to the UFC, and a defeat would harm the four years of hard work of making it happen. I was scared of losing outside the UFC again, as I was fighting bigger guys than I usually do. The last guy I fought (Wesley Murch) won four consecutive matches, and I fought with extra pressure, but I subbed him, and that was six wins in a row. I knew that I needed not only a good record, but I also needed a good winning streak. So it was a really stressful situation. But I’m back!”

At UFC 135 on September 24th, it was the long waited return of Assuncao, and standing on the other side was Eddie Yagin, a fighter with similar experience, but without what the Brazilian now had, the Octagon experience.

“Yes, I am a veteran now,” he says, commenting on the talk that he overreacted at weigh-ins, getting too close to Yagin’s head. “I knew he was debuting and eventually he would be nervous like I was in UFC 64.“

The performance against the “The Filipino Phenom” was a mix of new tricks with top cardio from Assuncao. Providing unorthodox looks with switches in stances, the Brazilian got to control the majority of the fight, teeing off on Yagin in a last round which started with a ground and pound display at 2:21. And if it was not enough to finish the bout, it did leave the impression necessary to show that Assuncao is a different fighter from the one seen back in ’07.

“Well, the plan was to finish the fight, and I got upset for not doing that,” he said. “But at the level we fight, we can’t spin the roulette wheel and see what happens. I think my focused training and my swimming reflected in my lungs in the fight. Cardio is a very important factor. I already saw black belts becoming white because the gas tank was empty when he needed more. Facing Ross Pearson, I am training at 6,000 feet over the ocean level, so I am more than ready for 15 minutes.”

Fighting Pearson on Friday on the preliminary card of UFC 141 is the bout Assuncao wanted, as he campaigned for the match on Twitter and now he will welcome the TUF9 winner in his featherweight debut. Openly challenging a man nicknamed “The Real Deal,” the Brazilian capoeira and BJJ black belt assumes the risks and the rewards of a fight of this magnitude.

“Beating a tough guy like Ross can catapult me to the front line of the 145-pound division,” he says. “I take it seriously, as it was my decision. I know he is a dangerous fighter if I play his game, and we studied his game, but on fight night everything is different. He comes forward and we saw it when he fought Edson Barboza. He tried to fight at short range, avoiding the powerful kicks. If he fights like this against me, he will go the ground, because my style is different, so I think our games match well. But I believe I have more tools to become the winner. Anyway, I don’t have a crystal ball, so we need to wait to see what will happen on December 30.”

In the second step of his second stint, Assuncao has Pearson in his sights as the next obstacle on the way to his eventual goal – a featherweight title.

“I’m pursuing my goal to be the champion. I am coming from seven victories, and I am not intimidated by anything,” said Assuncao. “December 30th I will impose my game, and when I am on, I will use my creativity to win.”

If we play with numbers, when the issue is a knockout or a technical knockout, we could say that 95% of mixed martial arts viewers love nothing more than seeing a fight end in that fashion. That highlight reel moment which marks the meeting of a fist, knee, or kick with an opponent’s jaw or head is usually unforgettable whether it comes by a “lucky” punch, a beautiful combination or that sometimes unfair trade of bullets on the feet when you say, “Someone is gonna drop.”

But don’t forget, we are playing with numbers, so to reach the 100% we need the 5% of those who don’t enjoy or celebrate such a result – the victim of the knockout, his camp, his family, his friends, and his supporters.

Luis “Beicao” Ramos, the welterweight who faces TUF7 alum Matt Riddle on the preliminary card of UFC 141 this Friday night, knows both ends of the equation very well.

Dispatching four opponents by way of TKO in two rounds or less, Ramos tasted the acid of the other side as he ate two quick (T)KOs. The first (in 2009) halted a four fight winning streak, teaching him an important lesson about keeping himself alert from the first second of an MMA match; the second was in his Octagon debut last August against fellow countryman Erick Silva. By coincidence, both defeats came in less than one minute, but the similarities stop right there, as Ramos is quick to point out.

“It’s 50-50 when you step in there,” he says. “Imagine if I had beaten Silva; the word now would be ‘Ramos is a phenom.’ That didn’t happen, but I accepted the fight because I knew I had the chance to win and I wanted to prove that I belong in the UFC.”

Just 40 seconds into first stanza, ‘Beicao’ was saved by the referee from unnecessary punishment, and the talk emanating from the fans was exactly the opposite of what he said earlier, as some said he didn’t look to be on the level of a UFC fighter. It reminded him of the adage that you’re only as good as your last fight, and after dropping to 19-7 he realized that reaching the big show has its consequences.

“You need to see where you committed the error; I thought he (Silva) would shoot for a single or double leg and he caught me.” Ramos said. “You know, I have a daughter (Manuela, four years old), and she asked me if I won the fight in UFC Rio and I said no. She doesn’t know how I lost, but the situation is terrible. It made me depressed, and the way I lost left openings for doubts about me, and arriving home without a smile for the victory, without seeing the smile of my joy, it really put me down.”

“Each fight you have to prove something,” he continues. “(UFC President) Dana White went backstage to check the fighters, he shook my hand and I need to prove I belong here. I have my new chance and I do not intend to waste it, as I am super prepared and ready to erase any kind of misconception about Luis Ramos, the fighter.”

After taking time off due to a suspension for the KO, Ramos had a successful camp that resembled the ones that rendered him the world Shooto title (168 pounds) and a spot at UFC 134. The Brazilian’s routine included six days a week of strength and physical preparation focused on sharpening his ground game, where he grappled using his Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt and Luta livre black belt, along with striking work where he boxed and traded Muay Thai with some of the best like Jose Aldo, Giovanni Diniz, Diego Nunes, Felipe Olivieri, Marlon Sandro, Eduardo Dantas and many others who are members of the renowned Nova Uniao team, led by tactician Andre Pederneiras. And of course, he didn’t abandon work in Riddle’s strong suit of wrestling.

“I went to the gym around 8am and left it sore (laughs) around 7pm,” Beicao explains. “Having more time to prepare for a specific opponent in Riddle helped a lot. I looked at his wrestling and his stance – a right hand in a southpaw base – and we mimicked his background, positioning me better. This way you don’t focus only on what he can’t or can do, so you can do much more. The fact of UFC 142 happening two weeks after 141 helped too. Nunes is fighting on the same card I am, and Aldo and Caio Magalhaes are going to perform in Rio de Janeiro, so we didn’t have down time, as training camps were the hot topic.”

With Riddle coming off two losses by decision and Ramos looking to rebound from the devastating technical knockout against Silva, a lot is on the line for both fighters. The pressure for a needed victory could send the match down different roads for the Brazilian and the American. One of them can impose his will by going into conservative mode and guaranteeing a safe victory, or the welterweights can go forward and bring to the table what was missing in their last Octagon appearances, a furious meeting crowned by a winning finish. For Ramos, that is the key point and at the end of the day he just wants to go home and see a smile on Manuela’s face.

“Like I said before, I think I need to prove something at UFC 141, something that got me my Shooto world title and rendered me eight fight finishes,” he says. “I expect Riddle to try to drag me against the cage and then take me down, but I have the antidote for it, as I did my homework, and each class during this training camp matured me. I tattooed Manuela’s name, I gave up our weekends together because of training, and I promised her the victory. And you know you can’t break a promise made to a kid.”

The first time UFC 138 co-main eventer Renan Barao (who fights Brad Pickett this weekend in the UK) shared his thoughts with us, he made it clear that he wanted to be part of the UFC. And even though he was a bantamweight competitor and the UFC still hadn’t added this weight division to the organization, Barao wondered aloud about gaining some weight and going up to the lightweight division to make it.

Well, the Brazilian-born Barao didn’t need to enter into an extreme heavy diet routine to get a place inside the Octagon, as the UFC absorbed the divisions of the WEC in late-2010 and made the dreams of all those who aspired to fight in the most prestigious MMA organization on the planet come true.

Barao made his debut in May, decisioning former WEC featherweight champion Cole Escovedo with a display of solid groundwork, excellent takedowns and a surprising standup game which featured an array of spinning back fists. Mission accomplished for the 24-year old? Not yet, as Barao still has a few goals to reach.

“My goal now is to bring the respect to the 135-pound division,” Barao says. “Of course the fans still prefer the heavier divisions, but bantamweight has more speed, more technique, and don’t get me wrong, the heavy guys do it too, but 135 combines some aspects that are nearly impossible for the higher weight categories.”

More attention seems to be a winnable war for the smaller UFC fighters, and if you have any doubt, take a second look inside the last bantamweight championship bout involving Dominick Cruz and challenger Demetrious Johnson. Both kept a high pace for 25 minutes inside the Octagon, a tough thing to do in a five round fight. Barao agrees that we’ve reached the point for the bantamweights to be considered the most frenetic and energetic division, it’s just a question of time.

“I do understand that the division is still new if you compare it to the other five UFC has [considering featherweight to be a new division too],” he said. “But I think more fighters will appear, guys who are in small organizations now, and while the weight classes is packed with talent now, within one or two years this will be the most prestigious here.”

Considering what we have seen so far, Barao may be right. Besides him, there are a bunch
of quality guys such as Miguel Angel Torres, Joseph Benavidez, Michael McDonald, Urijah Faber, Brian Bowles, Johnson, and Cruz, just to name a few, and this list will get bigger as the UFC expands and small, tough guys show up more frequently.

“I have the intention [of making it], and unconsciously the others have been doing it too with their performances in their fights,” Barao says. “Everybody delivers in all classes, but 135ers prove the worth of the division after every fight. And this is still new, so more Brazilians, Americans, Japanese, and British fighters will arise to prove that.”

It’s a bit surreal hearing a 24-year old talking about young talents that will show up soon, but despite his youth, Barao has more experience than many older fighters. He has 30 fights, 28 triumphs, one defeat and one NC. He also has 12 submissions, which is common for a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu fighter, but not too common if the fighter in question – Barao – only got his black belt at the end of September, adding to the impressive nature of his previous performances.

“A lot of people thought I was a black belt already, so they didn’t understand when my graduation was reported on the internet,” Barao smiles. “It is even more motivation for my training in order to face Pickett in England.”

The ground game will be ultra-important to take out a guy with the nickname “One Punch.” And the moniker wasn’t given because he’s a one trick pony; Pickett has it because of his power, so if one punch connects, it is game over. Barao says he’s not afraid of the standup, but he understands that his lethal weapon is the ground game.

“I have been training with some of the best strikers in MMA like Jose Aldo, Eduardo Dantas, Johnny Eduardo, Zeilton Rodrigues, Felipe Olivieri, plus Davi Souza of state of Pará boxing team, and I feel good on the feet,” he reveals. “But I am aware of my quality on the ground – if his plans of knocking me out don’t work and he needs to fight on the ground, I know I’m better and I can sub him from the bottom or on the top.”

Fighting in his foe’s home country of England, Barao knows that boos will be a constant during the match. And though the support Pickett will have can be a fuel for the Brit, for the Brazilian, the crowd will make the show look better, not intimidating.

“I can’t deny that I got a bit nervous in my first UFC fight, but I was well-trained and I listened to my corner, so I could handle the adrenaline and let my game flow,” he says. “Pickett posted on his Twitter account that it’s time to see if I’m for real, and he wanted to provoke me. But I read it, stayed calm and focused, and I’m ready to show what I trained and to unfold the strategy we worked on.”

From the preliminary card to the co-main event, Barao already achieved a lot of what he wanted to, to give the 135-pounders more attention. However, he says that it was the combination of exposure and his performance in the Octagon that did the tough job, because without it, words are only words.

“In the old times, the focus was on the main card, and you had to pray that the diehard fans and your family inside the arena for the whole card got some buzz out about you, because they were the only ones who watched these first fights on the card [laughs]. But now the UFC puts fights on Facebook, and they became more accessible, so the jump from the bottom to the top of the card will be more natural from now on. And now, I belong to this co-main event.”

A few years back, not so long ago, UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo had a very different routine than he does now, leading up to his UFC 136 title bout against two-time lightweight challenger Kenny Florian. And we’re not just talking about Aldo’s days without interviews and appearances as WEC champion and then UFC kingpin in the 145-pound division. The issue here is his roots, the poor start, and how he struggled to be where
he is today.

And even though Aldo is grounded when it comes to the changes of the last two years, he never had the opportunity to witness the extreme circumstances of other people suffering with some of the same issues he did. But in January, Aldo visited the earthquake devastated nation of Haiti, and it was a very new experience for the champ. Joining with other sportsmen from Brazil as part of the Haitian Journey of Sports for Peace, an initiative to re-socialize the survivors of that catastrophic event, Aldo was now in the position to help people with the same life history as his own.

“What I saw man… the country was in total misery,” he said. “The trip to Haiti made me really appreciate life, and it reminded me of everything I’ve achieved and everything I will conquer. Of course I can’t compare my situation in the beginning with their situation – but we made sure we showed them that a few of us came from the same difficulties and broke down some barriers. Obstacles are put in front of us to be taken down. I was happy to give them a message, to put a smile on their faces. I visited schools and orphanages and every positive message we passed to them, the reaction we received was in the same proportion.”

Injured and sidelined from his first title defense against Josh Grispi at UFC 125 in January, Aldo used more than his good mood and smile to let the Haitian people know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

“They didn’t have water, can you believe it?” he asked. “When I saw that, of course I gave what water I had, but I also had an old film of the difficulties I had at the beginning of my life and told them that with willpower and some help you can shine.”

A model of humility and perseverance outside the cage who still possesses the textbook ability to defeat opponents inside it, that’s the life of Jose Aldo. We’ve already seen his brutal and quick performances, and most recently he was tested deep into the fifth round of his first title defense against Mark Hominick at UFC 129. In that bout, the champ stayed
underneath the challenger for nearly five minutes of the last round, eating punch after punch, but he still came out of the bout as the featherweight belt holder. Asked about his lack of cardio late in the bout, Aldo said during a recent media teleconference that his difficulty cutting weight was the issue.

“The process is about the same every time. But before that fight we were working a lot on gaining muscle mass and it might have taken a little bit longer to get the weight off.”

After five rounds of war, Aldo agreed with the old adage that it’s harder to keep the title than to win it.

“I always heard this, and I agree 100% with it,” he says. “But since the beginning I was tested and this is part of my life. I just want more of them [challenges] coming.”

Aware of the hard test he would face against Hominick, he prepared in Holland with kickboxers, sharpening his already lethal fists and kicks with one of the best in the business in Andy Souwer. For the man standing on the opposite side of the cage on Saturday night –Florian – he added some… swimming?

“Yes,” he smiles. “The only alteration this time was that I started swimming. I am focused on what I can do well in training and I emulate it in the fight. I need to be well-prepared, that’s it.”

It’s not a lack of respect from the champ to a fighter with the caliber of Florian. But the reason he’s not issuing specific details this time is because in his last camp, the media had full access to practically every single movement of Aldo leading up to his battle against Hominick. So Aldo’s mentor, UFC vet Andre Pederneiras, stated that he’d establish some limits for accessing the champ – making it a little harder to those who wanted to peek at part of the detailed preparations for the bout against a veteran such as Florian.

And this time, Aldo knows what he needs to do in order to keep his belt and start his legacy in the Octagon, and it’s the unique and intimidating pressure he brings to this fight that makes him dangerous.

“He said that he can impose his age and experience on me inside the UFC,” said Aldo, who has fought in his home country of Brazil, as well as Japan, England, Canada and the USA. “He fought well at 145 as well as at 155, so he didn’t feel the difference. But this is the moment of truth. I’ll try to make a very explosive fight and we’ll see what happens.”