Pedro Nobre signed with the UFC to fight Iuri Alcantara on 13 days’ notice in January 2013, but his UFC career ended in 131 seconds. A year later, the Brazilian Top Team flyweight wants to prove he deserves to be among the best.
Nobre (15-1-2, 1 no-contest) was dominated by Alvantara at UFC on FX 7 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, but referee Dan Miragliotta ruled the bout a no-contest due to accidental punches to the back of the head. UFC president Dana White said it was a bad call by the referee, said Nobre was “an award winning actor,” and doubted he would ever fight in the Octagon again.
That was BS!!! Pedro is an award winning actor and horrible call by Dan M
— Dana White (@danawhite) 19 janeiro 2013
Sixteen months have passed and Nobre is about to make his international debut against Daniel O’Connor at the Titan FC 28 cage in Newkirk, Okla.. He hasn’t forgotten his controversial one-fight run in the UFC, and his ultimate goal is to prove White wrong.
“I will keep fighting and keep winning until they sign me again,” Nobre said. “I’m sure that I will be back (to the UFC) and I will show that they lost time. UFC is the biggest promotion in the world, and there’s where I want to be.
“I will show who I am at Titan FC. I will fulfill my contract with Titan FC, and I will be ready to show the UFC that they made a mistake by letting me go.”
The Brazilian was accused of faking an injury to pull out of the fight with Alcantara, but he guarantees that’s not what happened. According to Nobre, he left the cage thinking he had lost the contest.
“It was a huge miscommunication,” he said. “Nobody told me what was going on, and I was treated as a villain. I don’t speak English and the referee didn’t talk to me. Master (Murilo Bustamante) kept saying that the fight was over, but nobody told me what happened. I only found out what really happened at the hospital. Until then, I thought I had lost the fight.
“I train on a team, but I’m in the one who’s fighting in there so I need to be aware of everything that is going on,” he continued. “I talked to my staff and they are aware of that now. It should be my choice to fight or not, I can’t let anyone else choose for me.
“Everything that happened gave me more experience. Life is full of ups and downs, but I won’t let anything bad happen to me again.”
Nobre fought only once since the controversial fight, scoring a second-round TKO over Eduardo Felipe to win the WFC flyweight title. With only one loss in 19 professional bouts, the BTT fighter sees the chance at Titan FC as an opportunity to show the American MMA fans who he really is.
“The Brazilians MA fans know me, even some Americans know me, but I know that most of the American MMA fans don’t know me,” he said. “I will be fighting at CBS Sports, a huge TV in America, and this is my chance to show the fans that watched that fight who’s Pedro Nobre.”
Ten months after his last fight, Nobre is anxious to make his Titan FC debut.
“It has been 10 months out of the cage and I can’t wait to get back inside there to fight again,” he said. “I had visa issues, and then the event was postponed. It’s time to get back now. I’m training hard since September. You’ll see the same Pedro Nobre. It’s going to be a war. I’ll do a great fight for the fans in my Titan FC debut, and I want to grow fast in the promotion.”
O’Connor (4-1, 1 no-contest), his first opponent under the Titan Fighting Championship banner, enters the cage on a five-fight unbeaten streak, but Nobre wants to make him pay for every mistake me makes.
“He’s coming off good wins and a win over me would be big for him, but I will use my experience to finish him,” he said. “He’s going to make a mistake, and I will use that to finish the fight.”