Cesar Almeida may nonetheless be too inexperienced to compete with the elite of the UFC, particularly those that come from a wrestling background, however he’s doing his greatest within the fitness center to shut that hole.
“Cesinha” constructed an extended profession in kickboxing earlier than totally committing to blended martial arts in 2021, and it solely took him two years to get a contract with the UFC by Dana White’s Contender Sequence. For his most up-to-date struggle, a win over Ihor Potieria, he did his camp alongside UFC champion Alex Pereira, a person he has gone 1-2 towards in kickboxing. Now, to battle Abdul Razak Alhassan at UFC Vegas 101 on Jan. 11, he returned house in Las Vegas to coach with the likes of Sean Strickland and Chris Curtis.
“I’ve educated with [Nogueira brothers] ’Minotauro’ and ‘Minotouro’, with ‘Jacare’ [Souza], so I’m studying for a very long time now,” Almeida instructed MMA Combating. “I’m a brand new man in MMA, I feel I’m the much less skilled on the [UFC] roster, however I’ve been studying lots these previous 4 fights I had for the reason that Contender as a result of now I began to dedicate solely to MMA.
“Being with these guys, I get the depth and vitality they’ve, the willpower. You decide up one thing from all of them and develop much more. It’s nice to be round them as a result of I really feel they need me round as properly as a result of they see that I’ve one thing. They see that I’ve a future within the UFC. It was nice to be a part of all these camps as a result of the vitality is completely different. They’re champions. You see how they work and the way they cope with adversities in camp, and it motivates you. I’ve discovered lots this previous yr.”
The flip aspect of coaching with many fighters of your weight class, together with an occasional coaching companion in Caio Borralho, is that you just might need to face him down the road within the UFC. Almeida stated that coaching collectively means you all evolve as athletes so “you may’t be egocentric,” and competing towards a good friend is a part of the job.
Curtis will share the cardboard Saturday night time, taking up Almeida’s former opponent Roman Kopylov, and Strickland is booked to rematch Dricus Du Plessis for the middleweight crown at UFC 312 on Feb. 8.
“He deserves it,” Almeida stated of Strickland. “He works so arduous. He’s kinda loopy, however he’s very sincere, you understand? And I see he’s very motivated. Sean by no means stops coaching. He turned champion and was again within the fitness center the following day to coach, and that’s what makes him a champion. I feel he received the primary Dricus struggle, and I feel he’s coming again higher this time. I feel he will get the belt again.”
Almeida sees his 185-pound conflict with Alhassan this weekend on the UFC APEX as a harmful match-up, particularly within the first minutes of each spherical, however doesn’t count on Alhassan to maintain up the identical tempo for for much longer.
“The tip of the spherical is the most suitable choice for us to begin working and making him miss, make him spend vitality and go for the end,” Almeida stated. “It’s a harmful struggle for each and that’s why they booked this struggle. They wish to see blood [laughs].”
Almeida admits his final victory wasn’t as thrilling as he hoped for, and says typically it’s important to prioritize wins over spectacles. That’s not the case towards Alhassan, although.
“We’ll need to take dangers this time as a result of he’s a knockout artist,” Almeida stated. “I’ll go for a similar factor, however we have now to be prepared for every thing. The Kopylov struggle was a lesson. We didn’t count on him to attempt takedowns and that caught me unexpectedly. We’re ready for every thing now, the worst and the perfect. There’s no simple fights right here, however we’re prepared.”
