Las Vegas, NV — Through his first seven fights, multi-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion Rodolfo Vieira admits that he never felt comfortable in the cage.
He most certainly did not feel comfortable in fight number eight, which represented his first loss in the sport.
Speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press at Wednesday’s UFC Vegas 31 media day, Vieira (7-1) admitted that “I did seven fights there, and never felt comfortable inside the octagon. So I had to practice and tried to mentally— I worked hard actually to start liking and enjoying the moment there.”
If he’s not enjoying the moment, why bother fighting at all? That’s because Vieira believes he can succeed in MMA. “I feel I can be very good in this sport, that’s why I keep trying.” But, Vieira admitted, he had to overcome his fear of being inside the cage.
In that aforementioned eighth pro fight, things went horribly wrong for the submission ace — which resulted in being on the wrong end of a submission himself. Wearing himself out early against Anthony Hernandez, the black belt with numerous gold medals fell to a guillotine choke.
“I was not expecting to be submitted like that, but I was so exhausted, so tired, that anybody could have submitted me in that situation,” Vieira told the media on Wednesday. “I was too anxious to finish the fight early, and also I lost a lot of energy trying that arm lock, and then my mind went to a place where I lost mentally in that moment.”
With that in mind, heading into his UFC Vegas 31 fight with Dustin Stoltzfus, “I tried to get better in all the aspects of my game, especially mentally and also my cardio.”
Keeping his jiu-jitsu finally tuned while still growing in MMA has been something of a balancing act for Vieira as well. “I need to try everything, because I need to get better in all the areas,” he explained. And so Vieirea trains his ground n’ pound, and standup game, “but I try to train a little bit of everything to keep my game complete. I wish I could have more time to train jiu-jitsu as well, and devote more time to keep my jiu-jitsu on a high level, but with MMA training, you have to train a little bit of everything.”
Watch the full UFC Vegas 31 media day scrum with Rodolfo Vieira above. Vieira faces Dustin Stoltzfus this Saturday, July 17 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, NV.
