After dropping two bouts in a row with the UFC, Brazilian fighter Paulo Thiago’s (13-3) camp is hoping to get one more shot with the promotion.
Thiago’s coach, Ataide Jr. who heads the Constrictor Team in Brasilia, Brazil, spoke to Tatame.com about his fighters loss to Diego Sanchez this weekend at UFC 121. He notes that the only saving grace for Thiago was earning the “Fight of the Night” honor, his third UFC bonus.
“What saved me was the bonus for the best fight of the evening… I think that he’s got a chance of coming back. He did a great first round, but then he started to decrease his performance, and Diego started to improve. We’ll come back to Brasilia to get the team together, watch the fight again and to understand what happened… We can’t understand, Paulo is doing great on the trainings and can’t give it all during the fight. The game plan was not to go to the floor on the bottom and attack a lot while standing up, but we couldn’t do it…If (the UFC) gives him another shot, it might be on an undercard fight. Since he joined (UFC) he’s only fought really tough guys, but I think they’ll give him another chance.”
Thiago is 3-3 in the UFC having earned wins over Mike Swick, Jacob Volkmann, and Josh Koscheck. While his losses include defeats to Sanchez, Martin Kampmann, and Jon Fitch.