Author: By Thomas Gerbasi

This Saturday night, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil will be treated to the first professional appearance of one of mixed martial arts’ legends (and a native son) Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira. But before his UFC RIO bout with fellow heavyweight contender Brendan Schaub, let’s revisit the most memorable moments of the former UFC / PRIDE champion’s storied career.

Heath Herring I – November 3, 2001 – PRIDE 17
Result – Nogueira W3
With Nogueira 13-1-1 as a pro, his reputation was growing after PRIDE wins over Gary Goodridge and Mark Coleman. But it wasn’t until his three round win over Herring that the entire fight world got tuned in to what Nogueira was all about. Fighting in PRIDE’s first heavyweight championship bout, Nogueira showed that he wasn’t just a jiu-jitsu player as he rocked Herring standing and freely exchanged with him throughout the bout. But what got Nogueira the win was his spectacular ground work, which kept Herring guessing throughout the three rounder that former UFC heavyweight champ and color commentator Bas Rutten called “The best heavyweight fight I’ve ever seen and the most technical.”

Enson Inoue – February 24, 2002 – PRIDE 19
Result – Nogueira Wsub1
Three months after winning the title, Nogueira was brought back with what most considered was a gimme defense against the game but outgunned Inoue. And if you look at the final result, you would say that everything went according to plan. But what made this fight special was Nogueira’s rapid fire submission attack that left Inoue helpless and eventually put him to sleep. From a kimura and guillotine to a shoulder lock and the finishing triangle choke, this was a master submission class from a master of the game.

Bob Sapp – August 28, 2002 – PRIDE Shockwave
Result – Nogueira Wsub2
Bob Sapp would never be seen as a technical wizard, but at 6-5, 350 pounds, he certainly was a powerful handful for anyone he stepped into the ring with. That was the case when he took on Nogueira, picked him up moments into the bout and sent him to the canvas repeatedly with piledrivers. Some feared for Nogueira’s safety, but as “Minotauro” told me later, he was just biding his time, waiting for Sapp to get tired. By round two, the big man was exhausted and Nogueira put him away with an armbar, and it was here where the legend began.

Fedor Emelianenko I – March 16, 2003 – PRIDE 25
Result – Emelianenko W3
From 2000 to 2003, a span of 14 fights, Nogueira was unbeaten and considered to be one of the best heavyweights in the game. But no one stays on top forever, and after an exhaustive 2002 that saw him fight five times, he met his match in Russia’s Fedor Emelianenko. Yet despite a broken nose suffered early in the bout, Nogueira wouldn’t be put away by Emelianenko’s ground and pound attack, as he went on to lose a three round decision.

Mirko Cro Cop – November 9, 2003 – PRIDE Final Conflict 2003
Result – Nogueira Wsub2
After a controversial win over former UFC heavyweight champ Ricco Rodriguez, Nogueira was tabbed to take on feared Croatian striker Mirko Cro Cop for the interim PRIDE belt, which was in limbo due to an Emelianenko injury. And throughout the first round, Nogueira was on the receiving end of everything Cro Cop threw at him. An ugly defeat seemed to be in the cards for the Brazilian, but like a character in a monster movie, he just wouldn’t go away, and in the second round he was able to get Cro Cop to the mat. Moments later, he armbarred his opponent and wore the PRIDE championship belt once again.

Josh Barnett I – September 10, 2006 – PRIDE Final Conflict Absolute
Result – Barnett W2
From the time of the Cro Cop fight to his last bout in PRIDE, Nogueira would post an impressive 8-2, 1 NC record, an amazing feat any way you slice it. But the most memorable bout of that string wasn’t any of the eight victories, but a split decision loss to former UFC heavyweight champ Barnett, who went back and forth with Nogueira for two hard-fought rounds before being judged the victor in a fight many thought could have gone the other way.

Josh Barnett II –– December 31, 2006 – PRIDE Shockwave 2006
Result – Nogueira W3
In what ultimately turned out to be ‘Minotauro’s last PRIDE fight, he went out with a bang on the traditional New Year’s Eve show by avenging his loss to Barnett. Again, it was a closely contested battle, but with the extra third round to use to his advantage, the tireless Nogueira pulled away in the final frame, avoiding a Barnett submission attempt to pound out a unanimous decision win.
 
Tim Sylvia – February 2, 2008 – UFC 81
Result – Nogueira Wsub3
In July of 2007, the PRIDE star began his quest for a UFC heavyweight title with a tougher than expected decision win over old rival Heath Herring at UFC 73, and things got even rougher in his battle against Tim Sylvia for the interim crown. But after taking a two round thrashing, Nogueira came back and finished “The Maine-iac” via guillotine choke in the third frame. As “Minotauro” explained afterward, “I played his game for almost three rounds. He played my game for two minutes and I won the fight.”

Randy Couture – August 29, 2009 – UFC 102
Result – Nogueira W3
Following the win over Sylvia, Nogueira got introduced to a whole new fanbase thanks to his stint as a coach on The Ultimate Fighter’s eighth season. That was the good news. The bad was his second round TKO loss to opposing coach Frank Mir at UFC 92 in December of 2008. It was the first time he had been knocked out, and many believed that the years of wars had finally caught up to him. But when he stepped into the Octagon against fellow legend Randy Couture at UFC 102 in 2009, it was like time stood still as the two went at it tooth and nail for three classic rounds. When it was over, Nogueira had one of his biggest career wins, and the fans got a fight they would never forget.
 

It’s a devil’s bargain for Brendan Schaub. Defeat fighters like Mirko Cro Cop and “Minotauro” Nogueira and he will accelerate his ride to a world title shot. In the process though, he may alienate a significant portion of the diehard fanbase that doesn’t particularly care to see their heavyweight heroes defeated by young guns like “The Hybrid.”

That’s a price the 28-year old banger is willing to pay though; and in fact, he understands where the fans are coming from, mainly because he’s one of them.

“I think it comes with the territory,” said Schaub. “They’re either gonna love you or hate you, and especially with Cro Cop and Nogueira, they have the diehard fans, and I’m one of them. I grew up with these guys and I was the uber-PRIDE fan, so I get it. So when those diehard fans talk trash about me, I get it and I don’t take any offense to it because I love those guys too. But I want what they have and there’s only one way to do that and that’s by going in there and beating them.”

The Colorado native tested the big league waters last October with a decision win over former top contender Gabriel Gonzaga, and then entered a whole new realm with his third round knockout of Cro Cop at UFC 128 in March. This Saturday, he will look to take out a second PRIDE legend in Nogueira at UFC RIO, and he’s pulled out all the stops to prepare for the only man to hold heavyweight titles in the UFC and Japan’s premier MMA organization.

“This one has been the roughest training camp I’ve ever had,” said Schaub. “There’s been a change of coaches, I’ve had to travel more than ever for this camp, and it’s such a high pressure and high profile fight that I’ve exhausted every option possible. There’s literally nothing else I can do. I’ve never been more prepared in my life or more nervous for a fight, and I think that’s why I’ve trained so hard.”

If you want to call that a recitation of the usual pre-fight clichés, you can, but you would be wrong. Schaub has heard all the talk about Nogueira being on the tail-end of a storied career due to a series of injuries and a seemingly endless number of wars, but then again, he heard that about Cro Cop as well, and he got a helluva fight out of the Croatian veteran before knocking him out in the final round. Luckily, Schaub said he was preparing for the best Cro Cop possible, and when he got a pretty damn good version of him, he was ready. So not only did Schaub get the win and a high profile name on his resume; he got a Master Class in high-level heavyweight MMA.

“I got out of there and told my coach ‘wow,’” laughed Schaub. “When I took him down and I got back up and I was standing over him, man, he went to town on my leg, he upkicked me in the face, and I’m just not used to that. He’s used to those PRIDE days where if you’re down there you’re getting stomped in the face. So I’m down there and I’m thinking I’m fine, and the next thing I know, a flying heel kick to my face, he hyperextends my knee, and just in the clinch, I relaxed for a second and I paid dearly for it. He threw the nastiest elbow I’ve ever seen and broke my nose pretty severely. So I think the experience I’m getting by going three minutes with Gonzaga and going nearly three rounds with Cro Cop is priceless.”

It is. Always a talented athlete with speed and power, Schaub showed the ability to dig deep in a dogfight and win against Cro Cop, and if anyone is going to have the heart and determination to take him into deep waters again, it’s Nogueira. But that’s if “Minotauro” is back to his old self after a loss to Cain Velasquez in 2010 and a series of surgeries to fix up some long-nagging injuries. Schaub thinks he is.

“If you were to base it off the Cain fight and the Frank Mir fight, you could tell that something was up,” said Schaub of the two Nogueira losses that sandwiched a compelling UFC 102 win over Randy Couture. “That’s not the Nogueira we’re used to seeing. You can still tell that he’s got the warrior heart and mind, but his body was just not responding. And I think that’s why he’s had such a long layoff, to go back to the drawing board and let his body heal and take some serious steps to get back to his old ways. And that’s what I’m expecting. I don’t think he would take this fight against a young guy like me on a four fight win streak in Brazil if he wasn’t ready. I don’t think he’s counting on letting those fans down.”

Strangely, Nogueira’s storied career has never seen him set down in his native country for a fight, and like Schaub pointed out, the Brazilian has too much pride to just show up for a paycheck in front of fans that have waited years to see him perform live. This is like a championship fight for Nogueira, and he will not stop pressing until Schaub makes him stop.

“Nogueira lost to Cain Velasquez and Frank Mir, but none of them beat him in Brazil,” he said. “The guy’s never fought in Brazil. Fedor (Emelianenko) didn’t beat him in Brazil. I’m going down to Brazil to fight the best Nogueira we’ve seen, I guarantee it.”

On the flip side, we may be seeing the best Brendan Schaub yet as well, but it took a lot of work to get here, especially when you realize that he revamped his training camp over the last few months to do so.

“Trevor Wittman, usually my head coach and boxing coach, he’s just a little burned out on everything, and I knew this was coming for some time now, so it’s not really a surprise,” said Schaub of the amicable switch. “He hasn’t had a lot of time with his family and kids because of Shane Carwin, myself and (Nate) Marquardt, so he’s decided to spend more time working with the lower level guys who don’t require as much maintenance. I guess we’re a little bit like divas. (Laughs) And for me, I’ve been with Trevor for over six years and we just got a little too comfortable with each other. I needed to switch it up a bit, and it was perfect timing. I went out to Albuquerque to Jackson’s to work with Mike Winkeljohn and the rest of those guys, so it’s done wonders for my confidence and my entire game in general. It’s been a blessing in disguise.”

Thankfully he can say that now. But when he made the decision to alter his camp before the biggest fight of his life, there had to be some question marks, right?

“I think most people would get shut down, but for me, I was like, this is perfect, this is the time to make the necessary changes in order to beat a guy like Nogueira,” he said. “It couldn’t have come at a better time, and that’s the way I viewed it. I think people were like ‘this isn’t good; this is the biggest fight of his life and he’s making changes.’ But I thought it was perfect. I don’t know, maybe I’m just a lunatic. (Laughs)”

Or just crazy like a fox, because no one knows what goes on in a fighter’s mind like the fighter himself. And if Schaub is happy and content with what may cause unnecessary stress in someone else’s mind, then that’s what really matters. Add in a trip to Brazil before this week for UFC RIO media activities, and Schaub is focused, yet relaxed, before Saturday’s big night.

“The biggest advantage I had was the UFC doing the honors of letting me go down there (Brazil) for the press conference,” he said. “I had never been out of North America before that, and I treated it like a fight week. I brought my coach with me, we trained about the time we thought we’d fight, and even while doing the press stuff we were still training and preparing like it was fight week.”

That was then. Now fight week is here, and in a few days, Brendan Schaub begins the walk to the Octagon to face a hero and an MMA legend. He’s made that walk before and passed the test. This one may be even harder, but this heavyweight contender has done his homework.

“I fulfilled my undergrad,” he said when asked if he’s getting his PhD in fighting from these veterans, “but hopefully after this fight I graduate.”

It’s a devil’s bargain for Brendan Schaub. Defeat fighters like Mirko Cro Cop and “Minotauro” Nogueira and he will accelerate his ride to a world title shot. In the process though, he may alienate a significant portion of the diehard fanbase that doesn’t particularly care to see their heavyweight heroes defeated by young guns like “The Hybrid.”

That’s a price the 28-year old banger is willing to pay though; and in fact, he understands where the fans are coming from, mainly because he’s one of them.

“I think it comes with the territory,” said Schaub. “They’re either gonna love you or hate you, and especially with Cro Cop and Nogueira, they have the diehard fans, and I’m one of them. I grew up with these guys and I was the uber-PRIDE fan, so I get it. So when those diehard fans talk trash about me, I get it and I don’t take any offense to it because I love those guys too. But I want what they have and there’s only one way to do that and that’s by going in there and beating them.”

The Colorado native tested the big league waters last October with a decision win over former top contender Gabriel Gonzaga, and then entered a whole new realm with his third round knockout of Cro Cop at UFC 128 in March. This Saturday, he will look to take out a second PRIDE legend in Nogueira at UFC RIO, and he’s pulled out all the stops to prepare for the only man to hold heavyweight titles in the UFC and Japan’s premier MMA organization.

“This one has been the roughest training camp I’ve ever had,” said Schaub. “There’s been a change of coaches, I’ve had to travel more than ever for this camp, and it’s such a high pressure and high profile fight that I’ve exhausted every option possible. There’s literally nothing else I can do. I’ve never been more prepared in my life or more nervous for a fight, and I think that’s why I’ve trained so hard.”

If you want to call that a recitation of the usual pre-fight clichés, you can, but you would be wrong. Schaub has heard all the talk about Nogueira being on the tail-end of a storied career due to a series of injuries and a seemingly endless number of wars, but then again, he heard that about Cro Cop as well, and he got a helluva fight out of the Croatian veteran before knocking him out in the final round. Luckily, Schaub said he was preparing for the best Cro Cop possible, and when he got a pretty damn good version of him, he was ready. So not only did Schaub get the win and a high profile name on his resume; he got a Master Class in high-level heavyweight MMA.

“I got out of there and told my coach ‘wow,’” laughed Schaub. “When I took him down and I got back up and I was standing over him, man, he went to town on my leg, he upkicked me in the face, and I’m just not used to that. He’s used to those PRIDE days where if you’re down there you’re getting stomped in the face. So I’m down there and I’m thinking I’m fine, and the next thing I know, a flying heel kick to my face, he hyperextends my knee, and just in the clinch, I relaxed for a second and I paid dearly for it. He threw the nastiest elbow I’ve ever seen and broke my nose pretty severely. So I think the experience I’m getting by going three minutes with Gonzaga and going nearly three rounds with Cro Cop is priceless.”

It is. Always a talented athlete with speed and power, Schaub showed the ability to dig deep in a dogfight and win against Cro Cop, and if anyone is going to have the heart and determination to take him into deep waters again, it’s Nogueira. But that’s if “Minotauro” is back to his old self after a loss to Cain Velasquez in 2010 and a series of surgeries to fix up some long-nagging injuries. Schaub thinks he is.

“If you were to base it off the Cain fight and the Frank Mir fight, you could tell that something was up,” said Schaub of the two Nogueira losses that sandwiched a compelling UFC 102 win over Randy Couture. “That’s not the Nogueira we’re used to seeing. You can still tell that he’s got the warrior heart and mind, but his body was just not responding. And I think that’s why he’s had such a long layoff, to go back to the drawing board and let his body heal and take some serious steps to get back to his old ways. And that’s what I’m expecting. I don’t think he would take this fight against a young guy like me on a four fight win streak in Brazil if he wasn’t ready. I don’t think he’s counting on letting those fans down.”

Strangely, Nogueira’s storied career has never seen him set down in his native country for a fight, and like Schaub pointed out, the Brazilian has too much pride to just show up for a paycheck in front of fans that have waited years to see him perform live. This is like a championship fight for Nogueira, and he will not stop pressing until Schaub makes him stop.

“Nogueira lost to Cain Velasquez and Frank Mir, but none of them beat him in Brazil,” he said. “The guy’s never fought in Brazil. Fedor (Emelianenko) didn’t beat him in Brazil. I’m going down to Brazil to fight the best Nogueira we’ve seen, I guarantee it.”

On the flip side, we may be seeing the best Brendan Schaub yet as well, but it took a lot of work to get here, especially when you realize that he revamped his training camp over the last few months to do so.

“Trevor Wittman, usually my head coach and boxing coach, he’s just a little burned out on everything, and I knew this was coming for some time now, so it’s not really a surprise,” said Schaub of the amicable switch. “He hasn’t had a lot of time with his family and kids because of Shane Carwin, myself and (Nate) Marquardt, so he’s decided to spend more time working with the lower level guys who don’t require as much maintenance. I guess we’re a little bit like divas. (Laughs) And for me, I’ve been with Trevor for over six years and we just got a little too comfortable with each other. I needed to switch it up a bit, and it was perfect timing. I went out to Albuquerque to Jackson’s to work with Mike Winkeljohn and the rest of those guys, so it’s done wonders for my confidence and my entire game in general. It’s been a blessing in disguise.”

Thankfully he can say that now. But when he made the decision to alter his camp before the biggest fight of his life, there had to be some question marks, right?

“I think most people would get shut down, but for me, I was like, this is perfect, this is the time to make the necessary changes in order to beat a guy like Nogueira,” he said. “It couldn’t have come at a better time, and that’s the way I viewed it. I think people were like ‘this isn’t good; this is the biggest fight of his life and he’s making changes.’ But I thought it was perfect. I don’t know, maybe I’m just a lunatic. (Laughs)”

Or just crazy like a fox, because no one knows what goes on in a fighter’s mind like the fighter himself. And if Schaub is happy and content with what may cause unnecessary stress in someone else’s mind, then that’s what really matters. Add in a trip to Brazil before this week for UFC RIO media activities, and Schaub is focused, yet relaxed, before Saturday’s big night.

“The biggest advantage I had was the UFC doing the honors of letting me go down there (Brazil) for the press conference,” he said. “I had never been out of North America before that, and I treated it like a fight week. I brought my coach with me, we trained about the time we thought we’d fight, and even while doing the press stuff we were still training and preparing like it was fight week.”

That was then. Now fight week is here, and in a few days, Brendan Schaub begins the walk to the Octagon to face a hero and an MMA legend. He’s made that walk before and passed the test. This one may be even harder, but this heavyweight contender has done his homework.

“I fulfilled my undergrad,” he said when asked if he’s getting his PhD in fighting from these veterans, “but hopefully after this fight I graduate.”

You can’t believe everything you read on Wikipedia. So when the online encyclopedia stated that UFC bantamweight Ian Loveland’s “interest in martial arts started when he was five years old and he began training in Tae Kwon Do because, “I kept getting into fights and my parents wanted an outlet for me,” that wasn’t entirely accurate, as “The Barn Owl” points out that he wasn’t exactly a five year old streetfighting legend in Portland, Oregon.

“I think several quotes have been gathered together and mixed and matched and treated however they wanted,” said Loveland of the Wiki entry. “But I’ve always just been a little s**thead, the smallest guy everywhere. It’s like having a little terrier that keeps tearing up the couch (Laughs); you gotta find something for him to do to get that energy out.”

And for the record, though he can’t confirm the validity of the story, he did have some scrappy moments as a toddler.

“My grandma tells me a story of when I was like two or three years old and I punched a kid because he wouldn’t go down the slide,” he laughs. “He was scared to go down the slide and he was a lot bigger than me and he was holding everybody up. So I gave him a good shot to the gut. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but my grandma loves to brag on me so…”

At this point, you get the impression that Loveland is one of those rare people who find their niche in life almost immediately, and his attitude has remained consistent through a stint in the amateur MMA ranks and now through nearly six years as a pro. He may not be the greatest athlete or the flashiest performer, but he’s going to make you fight and make you go to places you may not want to visit. Just ask him about his UFC RIO bout with Yves Jabouin this weekend, and he’ll fill you in on what he believes is likely to happen.

“I just see myself being too aggressive, too strong, and too mean for Yves,” said Loveland. “Not taking anything away from his talent or his skill set – he’s a great striker and I know he’s gotten a lot better in other areas, like wrestling – but he just can’t keep pace with me. I’m just too mean.”

Surprisingly enough, take the 28-year old out of the gym or the Octagon, and he’s an affable young man with a clear focus on what he wants out of the fight game and life in general. Close that gate though, and it’s a whole ‘nother story. That’s what happens when you’ve traveled through the sport the way he has. This is no “three fights and a UFC berth” tale; no, Loveland may be part of the last generation of fighters who had to pay more than their share of dues before making it to the big show. Being an undersized 155 pounder didn’t help either.

“Your record can tell a lot about you, but it doesn’t tell the whole story,” said the 14-8 Loveland. “I’ve got a lot of losses on my record, but I was fighting at 155 a lot of my career and at 145. I’ve only had two fights at 135 pounds and I’m not that big a guy. It’s a lot different than boxing, where they can groom a fighter and get him the right fights and get him on the right track. I know when I first started fighting, once you fought every other amateur, that’s when you go pro, and once you fought every other pro in the area, that’s when you moved on. You couldn’t be so selective. I think the next generation of fighters, and you might already be starting to see that a little bit, there’s gonna be that many more easy fights for people to take and they can start grooming guys and the records are gonna start getting up there like you would see from a professional boxer with a 30-0 record. Good luck doing that five years ago.”

14-8 certainly doesn’t look sexy on a fight poster or in an event program, but among his peers, Loveland’s pro slate is a badge of honor from an age slowly fading away. And that’s a good thing for young fighters who can get decent fights in their proper weight class and get paid properly to do so. But to the hardcore, guys like Loveland do deserve a respectful nod of the head for their struggles.

“I know I haven’t had the easiest road here,” he said. “You look at a lot of guys and you see their record and people go ‘wow, that guy’s 17-2’ and you look at who they’ve been fighting and it’s 1-1, 2-1, 3-4, and you haven’t heard of a single one of these guys. I know I’ve paid my dues and I think that when I fight some guys like that, they’re gonna learn their lesson that I had to learn years ago when they fight me. So what goes around comes around.”

And things are starting to come around for Loveland. Long relegated to the local scene because there was no high-profile place for him to show his wares in his natural weight class, he finally parlayed a six fight winning streak from 2007 to 2010 into a UFC berth at featherweight, and he made the most of his shot with a three round win over Tyler Toner on the Ultimate Fighter season 12 finale card in Las Vegas. A drop to bantamweight followed, but he wound up on the short end of a decision against top contender Joseph Benavidez in a UFC 128 bout in March. And though he says of Benavidez, “He’s a classy guy and I’m sure he’s gonna be on top for a while, so I’m sure that I’ll get another crack at him,” the competitive nature of the defeat makes it hard to swallow.

“I knew I could hang with that kid and I really thought I could beat that kid,” said Loveland. “According to the scoring criteria that’s laid out right now for MMA, yeah, I lost that fight, but in my mind, man to man, and judging from the way Benavidez looked after the fight, he looked to be relieved to be out of the fight and he looked like he was in a fight, so I don’t feel like he beat me up. I think I did as much damage to him as he did to me. I stuffed a lot more takedowns than he was successful in. Every time I was taken down I got right back up to my feet, I never finished a round on bottom, and I didn’t win a decision, but I don’t feel like I lost a fight to him, man to man.”

There’s that “mean” again, and you can expect that to serve Loveland well on Saturday night, when he’s the American fighting the Haitian-born Canadian in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Just how did that happen?

“I don’t know how that worked out, but I’m glad it did because I need another fight and I need to get back on track,” he said. “And I’ve been wanting a free trip to Brazil for a while now. I’m imagining it’s gonna be pretty nuts. I know how excited they get over soccer matches and what not, and a lot of their top guys are on the card, and maybe their top guy in Anderson (Silva), so I imagine emotions are gonna be running high, and it’s just gonna be an energized arena. I’m pretty pumped about being a part of it.”

The fans will be too, and with Loveland-Jabouin being the first bout of the night, every punch, kick, or takedown is likely to be met with a rousing ovation. And despite being tagged as a wrestling-based fighter, Loveland is just as comfortable on his feet, and his hands can give any bantamweight trouble. But if the fight does stray to the mat, he isn’t about to let the excitement level dip.

“If I take a fight to the ground, it’s gonna be just as nasty,” he said. “I don’t have the blanket skills that a lot of the more solid wrestler guys have, and if I get on top of you, there’s gonna be just as much damage done. I like knocking people out standing up, and I had been on a real roll dropping guys before Benavidez, and I feel real comfortable there and I think I can do that to Yves. But if I put him on his back, I can knock him out down there too and it will look just as cool.”

If you haven’t guessed it by now, Loveland is amped up for this fight and the future. After years in the shadows, it’s getting to the point where he’s going to be seen by more and more people each time out, and for a veteran of the sport, there’s no better place to be. For him, the Jabouin fight is just the first step.

“The casual UFC fan probably doesn’t know who I am yet,” he admits. “So I guess I’m just waiting for that moment to break out on TV and show people how exciting I can be. I think Yves is a better opponent for me to showcase more of the entertaining aspect of my skills than a guy like Benavidez, who fought a very smart fight against me and kept himself really safe in between those times where he could get into scrambles and look for takedowns and slow the striking action down. I think Yves is gonna be the kinda guy that I can really show what I’m all about and I’m just looking forward from here. This fight’s gonna set things off for me, I think.”

In assessing his first UFC bout last September, welterweight David Mitchell doesn’t beat around the bush.

“The UFC jitters are real,” he said. “And hopefully they’re gone.”

He chuckles about it now, but his three round unanimous decision loss to fellow grappler TJ Waldburger on a UFC Fight Night card in Austin, Texas was anything but a laughing matter at the time. It was Mitchell’s first loss in 12 pro outings, yet despite putting up a stellar effort in an exciting back-and-forth ground war that, according to FightMetric, set a new UFC record for most combined submission attempts (13), “Daudi” wasn’t accepting any moral victories.

“I wanted the instant win,” he said. “I wanted to talk to (UFC President) Dana White more than I wanted to fight and I just tried to grab a quick submission and I kind of exhausted myself. After that, I was in survival mode, trying to grab submissions, and I was exhausted. My camp was good for the fight, but it’s all mental really if you can’t stay calm and keep your heart rate at a reasonable rate. There’s something about being in the UFC Octagon and my heart was just hammering away. But I fought the best that I could. The one thing I showed in that fight was some heart, because I was exhausted. He almost had me in a few different submissions and it never crossed my mind to tap out.”

Not surprisingly, the first thing on the mind of the Berkeley, California native was to get back in the Octagon as soon as possible to erase the memory of his first loss. The UFC granted his wish, and he was matched up with comebacking Mike Swick on January’s Fight for the Troops 2 card. But that fight fell by the wayside when both fighters got injured, putting Mitchell back where he began.

“That was the first time I signed on the dotted line for a fight and was unable to compete,” he said. “That messed with my head. I’m a man of my word – I sign on that line, I want to compete, but it just wasn’t possible. So that bummed me out and it took me a few months to really start sorting the injury stuff out and start to heal and get that desire again.”

Luckily for Mitchell, if anyone knows what it’s like to get in that injury-induced funk where the only thing you want to do is fight but your body won’t cooperate, it’s his trainer and fighting mentor, former UFC middleweight contender David Terrell. So there was good advice waiting for him after he lost for the first time and after he was sidelined by injury.

“David Terrell’s been a great support to me, and he’s been through it all,” said Mitchell. “He’s been a good friend and he’s let me know that there will be days like this. He said you’re not gonna go undefeated in this sport forever, so you just gotta bounce back and keep fighting.”

So that’s what Mitchell did, and if he needed another reality check, he got one every morning at 5am as he got ready for a day of training at Fairtex Bangplee in Thailand this past March.

“Man, some of those kids, the way they snap those kicks, I’d be up early in the morning, and before I even got out of bed at 5 in the morning, I could hear them just hitting those bags.”

For those kids – many teenagers, but some even younger – fighting is the only way out of a life where opportunities are few and far between. For the 31-year old Mitchell, it was a reminder that he’s in a prime position – not just in fighting, but in life.

“I feel extremely blessed every day,” he said. “I got into mixed martial arts because it was something I was in love with, and I love to train. All I wanted to do was learn a new jiu-jitsu move, hit the bags, run the hills as hard as I could, and that’s all I wanted to do every day all day. I’ve been blessed with the financial stability and a great team to be able to do that, and very few people in the world have that opportunity or have the opportunity, ability and mindset to make it all the way to the UFC. So I feel like I’ve already accomplished a lot already, and I just feel so blessed. I traveled around Southeast Asia and I saw the heart of darkness, the poorest of the poor, and these people don’t have a lot of opportunities.”

The visit re-energized Mitchell, and right on time, as he was presented with a fight on this Saturday’s UFC RIO card against Brazil’s own Paulo Thiago. Regardless of what Mitchell may have thought of his performance against Waldburger, the fact that he was going to be matched up with Swick, and now Thiago, shows that his stock has not fallen an ounce with the defeat. All that matters now is getting into the UFC win column against one of the top welterweights in the game, one whose only defeats have come to Jon Fitch, Martin Kampmann, and Diego Sanchez.

“He’s a tough guy,” said Mitchell. “His standup’s a little bit wide and his ground game isn’t particularly dynamic, but he’s an excellent, well-rounded fighter, a super tough guy, and a mean looking son of a gun.”

Mitchell laughs, and it’s clear that he’s in a better place than he was back in September. You could even say he’s a different fighter, and he plans on proving it in Rio.

“This year has been focused on getting better and getting ready to fight again, and here I am,” he said. “I’ve focused a lot more on standup and my boxing. It was so easy in my first few fights, I just tapped so many guys out it became routine. Go in, tap a guy out, one time it only took 28 seconds, and if you do the ratios, I was making a couple hundred dollars a minute in the small shows, and I got into the habit of doing that. I realize now that to compete at this level – this is the top level, the NFL, the NBA – you gotta be a well-rounded fighter and you gotta be dynamic and athletic in every aspect of the sport. So I’ve been working on being a more well-rounded fighter, being more comfortable on my feet and ready to exchange. The fans want to see great fights on the ground, but also standing, and they want to see knockouts, and that’s what I’m coming for. It’s like a whole new day.”

Usually, the best ones never brag. They don’t need to. Why? Because no matter what Edson Barboza says about his leg kicks, nothing would ever do them justice like catching one on the inside of your leg or the outside of your thigh.

In one of the more apt descriptions of this underrated and underutilized weapon, UFC heavyweight Pat Barry once described catching one of his leg kicks as akin to stepping on a land mine. Barboza’s opponents can probably relate, and just the idea of going through three rounds or less (usually less) of such an ordeal can not only leave you in pain for the next couple weeks, but can also change your opinion of the vocation you’ve chosen in life.

Barboza’s first UFC victim, Mike Lullo, knows all about those kicks. So does Anthony Njokuani, and he’s a Muay Thai expert like the Nova Friburgo native. But when you ask the 25-year old about their importance in his game, he issues a statement that has to be a chilling one to prospective opponents, simply because he admits that we’ve only seen a fraction of his game thus far.

“I always train kicks during my Muay Thai training, and I do that a lot,” he said. “But when I’m fighting, I just think about finding a way to finish the fight, and it doesn’t matter if it’s going to be by kicks or by knockout or by submission. If I feel that by kicking I will be able to finish the fight, then that’s the way I will keep going; if not, I will try to find another way. Kicks can be a big part of my game, but not the only one.”

Against Lullo at UFC 123 last November, Barboza drilled his opponent with kick after kick until the fight was finally halted in the third round. But in his UFC 128 bout with Njokuani, he showed off those other aspects of his striking game, combining with “The Assassin” for a Fight of the Night battle that was an exciting advertisement for the art of eight limbs. It’s a discipline that has been part of Barboza’s life since he was a child, but only now, eight fights into his pro career, is he beginning to truly mesh his Muay Thai into the MMA game.

“I’ve been training Muay Thai since I was eight years old, I competed in huge events in Brazil, and I got experience doing that,” said Barboza. “Today I’m training Muay Thai to MMA, and it is different; in other words I have not thought of Muay Thai by itself but I’m thinking about adapting it to MMA.”

25-3 in Muay Thai with 22 knockouts, Barboza ended 17 of those fights in the first round, and his aggressive style has been a testament not only to heroes within kickboxing, but in MMA as well.

“I like Andy Souwer when I’m talking about influences in Muay Thai and I am a big fan of Rodrigo Minotauro (Nogueira), Wanderlei Silva and Anderson Silva, because these guys are warriors, they are great fighters and they make great fights. They are my biggest influences in MMA.”

But the meshing of the two styles needed some work, and to aid in that adjustment, Barboza has been working closely with renowned striking coach Mohamed Ouali, who has been the man in the corner and the gym for many of the top fighters training out of South Florida these days.

“My coach Mohamed Ouali has been doing a great job with me about Muay Thai training since I came over to MMA,” said Barboza. “I think my posture and my adaptation from Muay Thai to MMA and my grappling game have been my biggest adjustments to my MMA career.”

Against Njokuani, he pulled out all the tricks when it came to striking, and despite the back-and-forth nature of the bout, one in which both lightweights got their fair share of shots in, Barboza enjoyed the battle.

“Njokuani is a great fighter, he has a great Muay Thai too, and it was good because we were able to do a war inside the cage, and give a big show for the UFC fans.”

A stellar knockout and an action-packed war. You couldn’t have scripted a better career opening than Barboza has had thus far, and it was a star-making turn for him to say the least. On Saturday, the ante gets upped even more when he steps into the Octagon in Rio De Janeiro to face former Ultimate Fighter winner Ross Pearson.

Said Barboza of his opponent, “Pearson is a great fighter and he also likes to fight stand up. But I’m focused on own my game and what I need to do.” Yet beyond the pleasing stylistic matchup, the fight is a main card bout that will announce Barboza’s arrival to the next level should he win. That’s almost as big as a title bout for a young fighter, but he’s keeping his cool.

“I am doing my best in my training and when I am into the cage I give my 100%,” said Barboza. “I fight whoever the UFC wants, I want to fight against the best fighters and I’m training really hard for that. But now I’m just thinking about my next fight and I’m focused on my fight against Ross Pearson.”

This is really where the fun begins though. A win over a quality fellow prospect like Pearson won’t answer all the questions about Barboza. No, a victory this weekend will only kick off a new set of them. How soon will he find his way into the title picture? How does he match up with so and so, etc. But the two most prevalent queries will center on his unbeaten record and his ground game, neither of which have been tested yet. Thankfully, the affable Barboza isn’t shy about addressing either topic.

So when it comes to the pressure of keeping that “0” in the loss column, he says he doesn’t feel any added weight on his shoulders.

“No, the pressure stays outside of the cage, because when I go into the cage, it is the same show, the same rules, and just my opponent and I. I just want to enter the cage and do my best.”

And about his ground game, the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu purple belt is equally unconcerned about what people say. He knows that he’s put the work in, and he’s ready for anything thrown at him.

“Man, I have been training jiu-jitsu and wrestling a lot,” said Barboza. “I’m training at Pablo Popovitch’s gym and at Imperial Athletics, and it has been really good to make my grappling game stronger. My grappling coach, Eduardo Guedes, has done a great job and I have great grappling partners like Pablo Popovitch, Vagner Rocha, Rafael Chaves, Roberto Abreu Cyborg, so I’m getting more confident on my game on the floor. As I said before, I don’t think about doing the fight on the feet or on the ground, I just try to find a way to make the fight more comfortable for me.”

And uncomfortable for his opponents. So could there be any place more uncomfortable for an Englishman than an Octagon in the middle of Rio De Janeiro while you’re fighting a Brazilian? Probably not. But then again, fighting Edson Barboza anywhere isn’t the way you really want to spend your Saturday night.

“As I always say, I can feel the energy coming from my fans anywhere in the world,” he said. “But of course that (fighting in Rio) will be more intense and it will be amazing for sure.”