Vinny Magalhaes defending title post ADCC gold
2011 has been a banner year for TUF 8 finalist Vinny Magalhaes. He’s registered four straight MMA wins by submission, capturing…
2011 has been a banner year for TUF 8 finalist Vinny Magalhaes.
He’s registered four straight MMA wins by submission, capturing the M-1 Global light-heavyweight title, and recently won a gold medal at the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) Submission Wrestling World Championships. The ADCCs acted as a weekend getaway as Magalhaes finished up his training camp for his first title defense.
Magalhaes is set to put his title on the line against Mikhail Zayats on this Friday in the co-headliner of “M-1 Challenge 27: Garner vs. Grishin.” The event takes place at the Grand Canyon University Arena in Phoenix, Ariz. and airs live on Showtime.
“I didn’t even make any specific training for Abu Dhabi,” Magalhaes told MMAjunkie.com Radio.
“I have goals for my career, mostly from my MMA career, so I could not put Abu Dhabi as a next goal.I just kept training MMA. Some guys they bring like five or six black belts, and they do like six to eight weeks of camp, just of jiu-jitsu. I could not afford to do that.”
“Nobody is going to remember that I did flying armbars in five years and didn’t win the tournament. Everybody’s going to remember that I won the tournament.”
“This time I had the mindset where I didn’t care if I won on points or by judges’ decision, but I had to win.”
“I saw (Zayats) fight a couple times. He’s more of a ground guy too, but you never know with Sambo guys. They’re more ground guys, but they like to strike. He’s a Combat Sambo world champion so his style is similar to Fedor.”
“Most of his fights end up on the ground, so I’m just hoping it ends up on the ground.”
