kaps
01-19-2006, 02:20 PM
What changed in your fighting game from the first fight against Ricardo Arona (at the Pride GP Middleweight 2005, won by Arona) to this one? Everything changed. I respected him too much in that first fight. He is a great fighter, but he didn’t deserve it. Besides, I improved my Wrestling skills a lot, training hard the take-down blocks. In fact, I didn’t take a vacation after that fight. I didn’t accept losing that like I did and so I prepared myself a lot for this one. (Mauricio) Shogun also helped me, giving me some advice during the last days before the fight, in Japan. You never know everything and he taught me a lot.
This time, you seemed to control your attacking desire and you didn’t go towards Arona like you always did with your opponents. Did you decide to study him more before attacking him? In fact, Arona keeps waiting for his opponent’s attack. During all the fight, he just punched me once! And there’s always a dilemma when you face him: if you don’t attacked him, there’s no fight. If you go toward him with all your strength, he takes you down and blocks the fight on the ground. It’s hard and you must have the right plan.
Two fights against Arona, two hard fights. That was also the hardest belt defense you fought. Is Arona your hardest opponent at Middleweight? They were two hard fights, that’s right. He’s a great opponent. He’s strong, he has good ground skills and he’s well-prepared technically. He demanded a lot of me and fortunately I was well prepared physically. But he doesn’t deliver the show that the audience want to watch.
It seemed that you were tired during the break between the second and third rounds… (Laughs) No... The guys poured a cold-water-bucket on me and I froze (laughs). I was well-prepared physically and I was trying to control my breathing using some Yoga exercises.
Was there any moment during the fight you thought you were losing? No. My corner men said to me everything was happening fine inside the ring. I knew I had won the first round. In the second round, I had some problems, but I still think I did better, as I did in the third one. I won the three rounds.
There are a lot of people saying Arona won that fight… Are you following these debates? It means nothing to take some one down, being on top. He didn’t take the initiative in the fight and he just put me in danger once, on the ground. He didn’t pass my guard. He only did when I attacked him and when he took me down and fell to the side mount. For me, he knows he lost the fight. He knows there are a lot of factors to win a fight. I ended that fight with the normal injuries of a 20-minutes-combat and I didn’t feel dizzy anytime during the fight.
Pride is announcing the Openweight GP and there is a lot of fighter wanting to fight it. Do you want to be at this GP? I gave in my money offer and if they accept, I will fight.
Apart from the money thing, do you wish to fight the best competition? Of course that is my wish. There’re a lot of tough guys their. Some of them I’ve already fought, like Mirko (Cro Cop) and (Mark) Hunt. If I gain some weight, I will be ready to face them.
Do you want to face (Emelianenko) Fedor? Nobody 'WANTS' to face him. But, if they put me against him, I will fight him. I don’t say I can beat anyone, but I will face anyone. It’s not a fun thing to fight someone where you know you will win.
Would you accept to do a third fight against Arona? Now, I would do ten more with him. It’s up to him. Doing this, he’ll make me rich… (Wanderlei roars with laughter) I love every time he talks about me (more laughs).
This time, you seemed to control your attacking desire and you didn’t go towards Arona like you always did with your opponents. Did you decide to study him more before attacking him? In fact, Arona keeps waiting for his opponent’s attack. During all the fight, he just punched me once! And there’s always a dilemma when you face him: if you don’t attacked him, there’s no fight. If you go toward him with all your strength, he takes you down and blocks the fight on the ground. It’s hard and you must have the right plan.
Two fights against Arona, two hard fights. That was also the hardest belt defense you fought. Is Arona your hardest opponent at Middleweight? They were two hard fights, that’s right. He’s a great opponent. He’s strong, he has good ground skills and he’s well-prepared technically. He demanded a lot of me and fortunately I was well prepared physically. But he doesn’t deliver the show that the audience want to watch.
It seemed that you were tired during the break between the second and third rounds… (Laughs) No... The guys poured a cold-water-bucket on me and I froze (laughs). I was well-prepared physically and I was trying to control my breathing using some Yoga exercises.
Was there any moment during the fight you thought you were losing? No. My corner men said to me everything was happening fine inside the ring. I knew I had won the first round. In the second round, I had some problems, but I still think I did better, as I did in the third one. I won the three rounds.
There are a lot of people saying Arona won that fight… Are you following these debates? It means nothing to take some one down, being on top. He didn’t take the initiative in the fight and he just put me in danger once, on the ground. He didn’t pass my guard. He only did when I attacked him and when he took me down and fell to the side mount. For me, he knows he lost the fight. He knows there are a lot of factors to win a fight. I ended that fight with the normal injuries of a 20-minutes-combat and I didn’t feel dizzy anytime during the fight.
Pride is announcing the Openweight GP and there is a lot of fighter wanting to fight it. Do you want to be at this GP? I gave in my money offer and if they accept, I will fight.
Apart from the money thing, do you wish to fight the best competition? Of course that is my wish. There’re a lot of tough guys their. Some of them I’ve already fought, like Mirko (Cro Cop) and (Mark) Hunt. If I gain some weight, I will be ready to face them.
Do you want to face (Emelianenko) Fedor? Nobody 'WANTS' to face him. But, if they put me against him, I will fight him. I don’t say I can beat anyone, but I will face anyone. It’s not a fun thing to fight someone where you know you will win.
Would you accept to do a third fight against Arona? Now, I would do ten more with him. It’s up to him. Doing this, he’ll make me rich… (Wanderlei roars with laughter) I love every time he talks about me (more laughs).