Yan Cabral lost part of the money he made in his UFC debut days after the fight, but he won’t make the same mistake again.
Unbeaten in MMA, Cabral entered the Octagon after competing at TUF: Brazil 2 and successfully debuted in the promotion with a decision win over David Mitchell. When he returned home in Rio de Janeiro, the Nova Uniao welterweight lost part of the cash he was supposed to give his manager Andre Pederneiras when he was robbed in front of the bank.
Cabral returns to the Octagon Saturday night against Zak Cummings at UFC Fight Night 40 in Cincinnati, Ohio, and plans to win impressively. If he makes extra money with post-fight bonuses, you’d better not get close to him when he gets back home.
“Don’t even talk about that, man,” Cabral laughed in an interview to MMAFighting.com. “I will rip the thief’s f–king head off this time.”
Pederneiras didn’t charge Cabral the money after he got robbed, but the UFC fighter plans to “slowly pay him back” in the future. To make more money, he wants the win bonus and a submission against Cummings.
“I want to get out of there with the win, but I always fight to submit,” he said. “I tried to submit David Mitchell the whole fight but he has good escapes on the ground, he’s tough. I always go for the submission, and I really hope I can get it now.”
Cabral was initially scheduled to face Alexander Yakovlev at UFN 40, but Cummings took the fight after Yakovlev signed to meet Demian Maia in Brazil.
“I liked the change because he already fought in the UFC and he doesn’t run away from the fight like the other guy,” Cabral said. “They are both southpaws and have similar styles, so I didn’t change much in my training and strategy.”
Cummings is 16-3 in MMA with nine submission victories, but the jiu-jitsu expert is not impressed.
“From his fights, I saw that his ground game is basic,” he said. “He takes you down and keeps working there, so his opponents try to get back up and expose themselves, and he has a good guillotine. I don’t know if he’s going to try playing that against me, but I really don’t worry about it because I will do what I do. I won’t let him get comfortable.”