Cristiano Marcello: Brave paying ‘a lot more than the UFC’ for my return

Cristiano Marcello, now 40, retired from the UFC in 2014. The CM System founder has stayed enormously active in the sport through his coaching, but the desire to fight remains. Now he has signed a three-fight deal with Brave Combat Federation that will in all likelihood be his home for the remainder of his career.

They asked me during the card in Belo Horizonte if I would come back to MMA,” said Marcello to Guilherme Cruz for MMA Fighting. “At first I thought they were joking, but then he said they really meant it. We moved to a different discussion at that point, to discuss numbers.

To stop drinking beer — that I never drank when I was an active fighter but loved after I retired [laughs] — cutting my barbecues, and not giving 100 percent of attention to CM System anymore, that has a price. They really made a fantastic offer. Three fights, and a lot more than the UFC pays. I’ll tell you this, it’s way more than the market pays.

The income from Brave is such that he can step back as head coach of CM System. That role will now be filled by Marcelo Zulu. Cristiano will continue to coach but with less responsibility, and thus more time to train.

Brave has eight more events planned in 2018, with debuts in Colombia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and South Africa, and returns to the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and India. Cristiano hopes to make his Brave debut on November 18 in Bahrain, at one of the December events.

I’m trying to build something in the sport, and Brave is one of the best promotions in the world today,” he said. “It has to be someone at a certain level because of my name and what I represent to the sport. I’m not here for a belt. I’m not here for money because I don’t need that. I’ve made money with the sport . … I’m the only guy to compete in PRIDE, TUF, Meca and the UFC. I’ve coached the best athletes in the world, Wanderlei, ‘Shogun’, ‘Ninja’, I promoted legends of the sport, Rafael Cordeiro and Wanderlei, to black belt in jiu-jitsu. I’m doing it because I love it, to test myself. I like to fight, and the sport has changed a lot today. Nothing better than locking yourself in a cage and testing yourself in there.