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and increasing my knowledge, both inside and outside of fighting. Ricardo Demente is also here helping us. His Jiu-Jitsu is very good. He is making me stronger, and from every practice session I learn. I am evolving. People can say whatever they want, we are going to do our work. Regardless of whether I win or lose, this is what I do. I train and study, and I try to eliminate my mistakes. If I try to follow what I've learned in training, the results will show. Before your fight with him was confirmed, Demian said that you would knock him out in a standup fight, but that he would finish you if the fight hit the ground. Do you think this is how your fight will go?
This isn't a Jiu-Jitsu fight, it's an MMA fight, which is a new style that comprises various techniques and elements. It is not easy to say that I would beat him standing or that he would win on the ground. Of course each of us has our specialty, but fighting is fighting. MMA is a new sport. There isn't any specific study for it, so we study as we train. I think we need to sit our butts down and evaluate what we have been doing, read and review, take a look at how we've been training. I will continue studying for the rest of my life. I know that for sure. Sometime this may end, but it is working for me right now. For me, every fight, I take it as if I was studying for an entrance exam.
I do not worry about what people say about me. I always do my job with my head held high. That is the most important thing to me. People say, "You do this, you go do that". It's MMA man. It may be that we end up on the ground in a position where I can find a submission, or he may surprise me in the standup with a punch. That is just one part, but there are many things behind it all. People talk a lot, but when it's the moment of the fight, things change. One day maybe you did not sleep very well, or maybe somebody said something bad at the wrong time. You have to be in the right moment, with good people by your side, and not with people who feed you falsehoods. Some people throw away the proof of everything you love, and that makes the difference at the top.
So your best training takes place inside a classroom?
Man, I'm in the classroom every day. I have a lot of teachers with thick skins, and that is what is cool, the exchange of knowledge. There are always new things (to learn), and that is great.
You have an ace in your sleeve with Andre Galvao, because he trained with Demian in Brasa for quite some time.
We are training, if it is God's will that I continue as the champion, I will continue. If He thinks that I am spent, then someone else deserves this opportunity. My head is in a different place right now. I'm focused only on this fight. I'm not upset or stressed, I don't feel any pressure to fight with Demian, or any other fighter in this (middleweight) or any other weight class. I'm worried only about what I'm doing for training every day. If I can succeed in that, then what we are doing is working for me, and is a good fit.
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