UFC Porto Alegre Fight Camp

Priscila Souza, Jessica Andrade (UFC), Mariana Morais (Invicta FC),

Me, and Jady Menezes @ Nobre Arte in the Cantagalo Favela

The first time I met Jessica Andrade, per usual, I had no idea who she was. In fact, I thought she was a guy. She walked into Nobre Arte sporting long board shorts, a loose T-shirt and a Torque snapback that hid her long hair. When she pulled off her hat and I realized I was looking at (a short) female, I had to laugh to myself. I get a lot of comments when my dress strays from the average skin tight Brazilian work out apparel... most of said comments are directed not towards my style, but my sexuality. Its refreshingly American to see a girl in baggy clothes.

Exhibit A: Girls don't dress like this in Brazil

Reppin' V for Vitafor my new supplement sponsor.

That day I was so exhausted from sparring that I couldn't even stay for the class. Rubens, my trainer made some kind of comment about who she was as he walking over towards me smiling down at a picture he just took with her, but I brushed it off. All I could think about was my protein and BCAA waiting for me at home.

It wasn't until I got home and got some chicken and sweet potatos in me (fighters in Brazil only ever eat chicken and sweet potatoes) that I had the energy to google the giberish that Rubens had been calling this baggy pants wearing girl.

"Batty taca" or something.

...Or, ya know, UFC's 10th ranked Bantam weight, "Bate Estaca" thats Portuguese for "Pile Driver". Real name being Jessica Andrade. I knew exactly who she was once I saw the real name. She made headlines in 2013 for facing off against Liz Carmouche in one of the first UFC bouts with two openly gay fighters.

As a general rule, especially after Junior Dos Santo's  wife got mad at me,  I try not to take pictures with any of the UFC fighters that I run across. I'd prefer to be in the UFC with them as opposed to just posing in an Instagram picture next to them, so my focus is always more on watching their training habits rather than hounding them for photos.

But whatever... most of my friends don't realize running into UFC fighters in Brazil is like getting mosquito bites; its inevitable and sometimes really annoying (because they have cameras and you didn't do you makeup).

So, the second time I saw her, I took a picture for Instagram.

It wasn't until the 3rd time that she showed up to Nobre Arte for a sparring session that I became interested enough to climb out of my shell and talk to her little posse. Jessica trains in Curitiba at Parana Vale Todo (PRVT) under Guilliard Parana. She was in Rio as part of her all female training camp in preparation for UFC Porto Alegre on February 22nd where she will be facing off with Marion Reneau. She came to Rio with 5-6 girls from other events like Invicta FC in the US and XFC here in Brazil to do the boxing portion of her camp with Master Claudio.

The sparring session started and Jessica was one of the first in the ring (There is only one ring and two people fighting at all times. All sparring happens under the watchful eye of of Claudio). One by one the girls that came with her went into the ring. Behind them went the guys. Even people that came in late went in, while I stood there in my headgear trying to stay warm and un agitated by the long wait. I wanted to get in the ring, but I've been conditioned in Jiu Jitsu to never ask a higher belt to train. Similarly, if Claudio was going to have standing there waiting forever, then I was going to wait patiently and try to pick apart every mistake that everyone made as they entered one by one like I had been instructed to do by Rubens.

Interestingly enough I noticed that in 45 minutes of sparring Andrade didn't through a single straight punch (jab or straight right). This intrigued me because like I said before she's pretty short and I was interested to see how she would close the distance between herself and a much larger opponent. Closing the distance in a fight is hard for me, especially with some of the taller guys that Master Claudio matched me up with.

Well, apparently, I have been over thinking the whole issue because she just lowers her head, keeps her eyes up, and goes in swinging to the body like a lunatic.

Jessica Andrade

Ridiculously effective! 
I know because I tried it when I finally got to go in against one of Jessica's fellow 135 pounders. She had a hard right hand but I was definitely able to use the Andrade whirlwind technique to close distance. Picking up on that little gem made meeting her totally worth the while.

And to think. I was going to skip training that day and lounge around in my bed...

The last round in sparring. All out for 30 seconds.

I've been spending a ridiculous amount of time at Nobre Arte

BCAA's thanks to Vitafor Supplements

Machina Boxing

Philadelphia founded...

Universally loved...

Bloodbaths and Social Projects

My first week back at the social project after the Christmas/ New years festivities ended with a 9 year old breaking down the logistics of blood baths for me.

"There's a dead body and then, when they take it away, it leaves a ton a blood."

If I found the information unsettling, I can only blame myself. I had, after all, I had taken it upon myself to question the kid about the recent shooting that happened in my neighborhood.

He had come back after training to retrieve his forgotten house keys and I ran into him as I was leaving the project to head to the beach before bed. He was wearing shorts and some worn flip flops that were a little big on him. He choose to leave his shirt home that day but he was rocking a cell phone clipped to his thigh that made his pants sag down. He was only 9, but his attire and his attitude made him appear much older. He walked around Ipanema as if he owned it, twirling his key between his fingers and greeting people that worked on the streets as he walked by.

"So, have you ever seen one before?", I inquired.
This prompted a small explanation about how to climb over and/or skirt a blood bath. Keeping in mind that the narrow and uneven streets of the favela provide prime conditions for the pooling of water and/or blood. Given enough rain, some streets can turn into small rivers... or waterfalls. I have friends that live in places that have been deemed unsafe due to the potential for dangerous exposure to water or falling debris.

Police shootings and bloodbaths are things of movies to me, so it was somewhat disturbing to have a little kid talk about them as if he was telling me about doing his homework. We stumbled across the topic of bloodbaths because there was a shooting at the beginning of the week in our neighborhood. I heard a lot of rumors concerning the shooting death of  a cop, a dealer, and/or some kids.

So in order to clear up some doubts and kill some time while we were walking I decided to ask the little kid... cause I mean, kids and drunks always tell the truth...

it's just generally hard to understand...

This is the bonde car that takes residents higher up into the favela

The last station, station 6, is a place known as Vietnam

From what I gathered, a dealer, known as Playboy, was buying snacks by the Bonde Station (this is a cable car that goes up into the higher regions of the Pavao). The news said the dealer started shooting and that two people were hospitalized in the crossfire. My little friend refuted this, however, saying the cop shot first because of the law. His comment about the law was very interesting because I believe he was referring to the favela law and something pertaining to the rules of shooting at cops. I assume this rule would be something along the lines of not killing cops as to avoid war... or re-pacification... or basically BOPE coming in here and killing everything that goes bump in the night. Kids are good a regurgitating hard facts, but getting them to elaborate on detailed concepts like favela law is pushing it. So I ended my line of questioning and he switched the topic back to jiu jitsu.

I was correct, however, in assuming that he would know what was up. No matter who shot first the results remain the same: the dealer, Playboy, and two kids were killed in the shooting. The cop was not killed, although he may have been injured.

Although Cantagalo is a pacified favela, incidents like this one are not uncommon. There is a serious lack of infrastructure inside of the favela's to keep kids occupied and off the streets. They don't have playgrounds here and their soccer courts are concrete squares littered with trash and shit from stray animals. The educational system is a joke in this country so kids have a ridiculous amount of time to roam the streets. Thats were social projects come into play...

This would be me getting searched by the police 

with all of the kids from the social project behind me. 

I was PISSED!!! 

Cantagalo is actually replete with social projects. In addition to Terere’s project (that is actually at the bottom of the favela in Ipanema), there is a checkmat gym and another unaffiliated Jiu jitsu gym on the hill. They also have a huge building called Crianca esperanca that houses several social programs including the Nobre Arte boxing gym. 

The main social project I have been working with, Terere Kids Project, has grown substantially in the last year. Every month we receive donations via PayPal that I use to pay for kids competition fees. Competitions here can be kind of pricey! More importantly, we have been getting access to more kimonos! A kimono is key to training Brazilian jiu jitsu, however, they do tend to be quite expensive! With help from a friend I Ain't No Saint we have been able to get more gis!

Lets stop here and comment that this is the man’s legal name. Iaint Nosaint. The “T” is silent giving the Iaint a pronunciation similar to that of the name “Ian”.  I was particularly excited to meet this individual because silent letters are a pet peeve of mine! Kat Williams once asked, “When, I mean seriously, WHEN will you ever use a silent letter in your personal life”.

Rio 2014 would be the answer to the question!

So yeah getting back to the point. I Ain’t No Saint may not be saintly but he is a philanthropist and has donated quite a substantial amount of money to the kids of Cantagalo favela. Not only to ensure that our little ones look fresh in their new Cascagrossa Kimonos, he also dishes out skrilla on a monthly basis to keep Moicano, one of our sponsored athletes, killing people on the mats with his damn berimbolo.

Kimonos sent from to the project via USA

We were recently able to acquire 20 kids kimonos from Cascagrossa to give out to little ones that want to start training or just try out a class. So now, when I walk through the streets, everyone is always asking me about training jiu jitsu or how to get kimonos. In addition to the kids kimonos, the project relies heavily on used kimonos donations for the bigger kids as well. Guests from Connection Rio hostel in Barra da Tijuca have been very helpful in supplying A1 kimonos for the older kids. 

People often ask me why I don't move closer to Nova Uniao. Cantagalo is not the nicest favela in Rio but it is home, and I don’t want to leave my kids. Its nice to know that you have an impact on the community that you live in (no matter how small that impact may be). Galo may have its negative aspects; it’s not the cleanest favela for example. Well, actually, it’s more like the dirtiest favela I’ve seen, with the most openly blatant trafficking. It is, however, not too violent compared to other places like Rocinha or Complexo Alemao and the people here are incredibly nice. Despite having to hop over shit and around dealers, I feel at home here, and I don’t want to lose that. 

So Bloodbaths or not. Galo is home.

Favela Jiu Jitsu

The new Terere DVD set is coming out soon! You can preorder on the Budo Videos website. Definitely worth the money especially since I did all of the translating!!!!

Check out the preview for another look at the Cantagalo favela

You know you live in the Favela when...

Its summer time and the kite flyers are out 

Its amazing they don't fall off these walls

I was recently helping my friend find a new house to move to in another favela located in the middle of Copacobana. It had been awhile since I had seen the person, so I agreed to meet them, completely forgetting about my own moving nightmare. Remember that favelas are on mountains, not little hills, but towering mountains, so said search for a new place resulted in an extensive leg workout. My workout began when, I descended my own mountain and walked halfway across Copacabana to meet up with my boy. We then proceeded to walk up a million flights of stairs to get to the main level of another mountain. My friend was dismayed (thats putting it lightly my friend was friggin' pissed) to find out that several of the people renting rooms were unavailable or had already found tenants. No matter what a person tell you, rooms are always first come first serve. Whoever shows up with cash money first, wins.

So we looked at some rental signs, made some phone calls, and then for some godforsaken reason, my friend led me up to the tippy tippy top of the favela. I mean the very top... just to make that clear.

We ended up on a narrow, never ending flight of stairs until the houses started to recede into the trees (It should be noted that this place was way cleaner then my own neighborhood, Cantagalo. People here throw trash everywhere.). At the top the stairs ended and there was a small dirt path that rain along the edge of the mountain, dividing the trees and the few house that were scattered throughout the trees. .Off a couple of feet to the left where about 5 people gathered around a huge frying dish outside of what looked like a small bar or maybe a store. I couldn't imagine how shitty it must be to have to walk all the way up here to get home.

Instead of taking their trash out people throw 

trash over the edges of the streets. 

We were looking for a room that was for rent, but the owner was nowhere to be found and it turned out my friend was out of credit on his phone. Go figure. We attempted to wander down the dirt path but then my friend turns to me and says, "no, way forget it, there is no way I would live here!".

As we were descending the stairway to heaven my friend, and fellow gringo might I add, made another comment about how the police would never show up there if anything where to happen.

I thought that was really funny.
Before when we reached our final destination, two things had passed through my mind:

1. I had never walked through so many side streets in my own favela without running into drug dealers.

2. Its rumored that the drug dealers hide the drugs and weapons in the tops of the favelas where there start to recede into forest (i.e. in places like we were).

So yeah the thought of finding police in a place like this was very funny to me. The only thing I could picture the police doing up there would be raiding suspected dealers or collecting their allotted bribes. Come to think of it, I guess I always assumed the only role police play in the favelas is to go after the dealers. Before I could think about what I was saying I told him, "In the favela, you switch cops for the thugs, the cops won't help you here. "

I thought that was kind of funny too, because seriously, what leads a person to automatically think like that? I mean I know a lot of nice cops, but I still have an inherent distrust of them in general.

Corner Boys

Maybe if I laced their blunts with paper thin shreds of poetry

they'd get high enough to reach redemption

You know you live in the favela when....

I'm walking home through the dark narrow allies that pass as "streets" in my neighborhood and I'm startled by a bump in the night. It turns out said bump is a crackhead brandishing a freshly bought crack rock and he waves on me saying, "Hey don't worry its all good"!!

I'm actually relieved because I believe him.
But why?

Well, Mr. Crakudo just purchased some crack rocks from the armed dealers about 10 feet away (you don't always see the guns, but you should always assume they're there). If they were working that meant that there should be another look out just two feet behind me as well. I didn't see him when I passed by, but he was there, possibly on a roof. The crackhead ambled away towards the exit of the favela and I headed on home, using my cellphone light to avoid dog feces (there are a lot of stray dogs). Under the watchful eyes of the dealers, the only illegal enterprise that was going to go down, was their own. This left me free to roam safely without fear of getting robbed of my Ipod.

You think the whole thing would be a little terrifying, but the thing is, after a year of living there, you get used to armed dealers. They aren't as bad as they are portrayed in the media (although I imagine they aren't as good as they would lead you to think either). Some of them stop working and then they start showing up at one of the 3 BJJ academies or the Nobre Arte boxing school located in the favela. You see them on the streets parking cars and they ask about the kids tournaments, some of them asking about their own sons. You see them around everyday, at your friends house or at birthday parties drinking beer and cutting cake with everyone else. And then one day, you don't see them for awhile because sometimes they get locked up, or they have kids, they go back to work... or they die.

Cops on the other had are an anomaly in the favela. They roam the streets heavily armed and have little contact with the inhabitants. According to this wikipedia chart, pacification in the PPG occured in 2009. Meaning that BOPE, or the Military death squad, rolled in and killed the drug dealers, leaving way for cops to set up a police station.

Note: They actually included "vietna" or Vietnam on the areas under this UPP. Vietnam is an area at the top of Pavao that is notoriously violent.

December 23, 2009

5ª UPP

Pavão-Pavãozinho

Copacabana, Ipanema (UPP area includes Pavão-Pavãozinho, Cantagalo e Vietnã)

This is a view of Pavao/ Pavaoziho from Galo 

At the top right is Vietnam where most of the gun shots

come from. 

The problem with pacification is that the the police were being reactive and not proactive. Since pacification they have done nothing to assuage the peoples hatred for armed forces. Inhabitants treat them as if they were invisible and some shops will even refuse them service. Kid grow up learning to hate police and distrust those in authority, instead of learning to read and write. 

Once you get down from the favela, its only 3 blocks away 

from Ipanema beach. 

One day I was going to working around 8AM and as I walk out of my building I heard a girl screaming. She is sitting on the stoop with a joint paper in her hand arguing with the two cops that are doing their morning arounds (equipped with 2M5s and 2 hands guns). I stopped for a wee bit of entertainment. What I gathered from her speed-up, angry Portuguese was something along the lines of, "I've been smoking since I was a kid and ain't no cop gonna make me stop now". They continued to scream back and forth a little and then he waved on his m5 toting partner who was about 10 feet back, and they continued on their way.

I was amazed she didn't get searched because she most likely was actually about to roll a joint...

Get HiP:
Angela Davis: The Racist State of America Persists

The American Justice System is Not Broken

Darwinism at its finest

Streets drop off into trash filled vegetation. 

Kids come flying down these tiny streets on skateboards

and bikes. Avoiding people and holes with amazing dexterity! 

People build houses wherever they want. 

And then they build some more on top

Def Poetry: Words kiss similes so deeply 

"I'm sorry but this gun makes me feel manly 
In this concrete jungle were monkeys became kings"

"Now I'm just afraid to raise a black son"

The System 

Prentice Powell

Black eyes and Blue Belts

Enjoying my new blue belt and the view from my roof!

I walked out into the pharmacy around 5 0'clock clutching my beloved Iphone 3 that contained the picture of the atadura or wraps that I just bought to tape my hands in a couple of hours. I was livid as I popped in my headphones and walked to the beach to catch the bus to BarraShopping.  From BarraShopping I would need to take a taxi (R50) to my fight. I expected the whole trip to take about 3hrs, and I was right, I didn't arrive at the venue until 8:30-9PM

This is what Joe is for. At MiKiDo I would have never had to catch the bus by myself to go to a fight because we have a Joe, also known as the boy, who does.... well he does everything. So yeah, I was pretty livid as I walked to the beach thinking about how I could/should be riding easy in a hybrid on my way to my first MMA fight. I miss 1st world problems.

While fight day is normally a time to relax and focus, I woke up with a lot of problems to resolve.

Problem 1: Sponsors
After weigh ins yesterday, I managed to land myself a supplement sponsors thanks to Tiguerinho, one of my MMA coaches. I came home with a bag full of  protein, BCAA, Glumatine, and some other goodies thanks to Vitafor. The only stipulation was that I need to compete  the next day with their logos on my fight shorts and work out shirt and the academy was currently out patches! whomp whomp.

The people who I have begged to bring me should understand 

how much a supplement sponsor means to me <3

That's why at 11 A.M. on the day of my fight, instead of chilaxing in bed, I was at the gym picking up patches from my boy Jhonata. I then had to haul my butt back to the favela to find someone that could sew the patches on right away, which is not an easy feat!

Problem 2: Corners
My second problem was that I was suddenly without any corners. Finding two people to yell at you to keep your hands up and put a chair out for you to sit down was supposed to be the easiest part of the fight... or so I thought.



Corner #1 was supposed to be Claudinha. Which would have been all sorts of bad ass to have here there cornering me. Not only is she an undefeated MMA fighter now living it up in the UFC, she also is my only friend with a car (this fight was REALLY far away), AND she speaks English (This was important since I misunderstood something VERY important that cost me a gold medal at Rio Open). However, on top of training for her fight this Saturday, cutting weight for said fight, getting ready to travel to the US for a month, arranging my fight, AND coaching me during sparring sessions... she also had to take her finals because she is in college. So, corner one was out, physically at least because she was still sending me texts and encouragement to keep me motivated as I battled it out on Rio's public transportation. She eventually had to send me two new corners as well!


Corner #2. Where as I knew a week in advance that Claudinha might not be able to make it to the fight. Corner number #2 informed me a couple of hours before I needed to leave that he was working. Go figure. I might have been pissed if he wasn't the reason I am now sitting pretty in a blue belt with a shelf full of supplements again! (The story of my blue belt is another awkward tale for another time).

Did I mention that I FINALLY got my blue belt! 

and this amazing Kimono thanks to Cascagrossa

So there I was, the day of my fight at 5 PM walking out of a pharmacy with no ride and no corners and heading off to my first MMA fight. #DOLO

Thank god for Small Miracles

My small Miracles arrived on a motorcycle around 9 P.M, one hour before the fights were supposed to start. Poliana, one of my sparring partners, and Rubens, my boxing coach from Nobre Arte came to corner and keep me company after a last minute text from Claudinha.

Side note on Nobre Arte:
Nobre Arte located in my neighborhood here in Cantagalo and is run by Claudio Coelho, apparently one of the most famous boxing coaches in Brazil. While most academies have strict no cross training rules, Nobre Arte trains a lot of people from all of the top gyms in Rio including Nova Uniao, Brazilian Top Team, Blackhouse/Xgym, Rio Fighters, and apparently most of the Gracies have passed through there as well (Yesterday I met Carlson Gracie Junior).
I prefer training boxing at Nobre Arte because they don't take any BS. Where as you may be able to half ass your way through a boxing class at Nova Uniao, Rubens and Claudinho are quick to kick you out of training the second you slack off. Since losing my fight I have been invited to their sparring sessions by Claudio. This is an incredible honor and made me feel like a 5 year old on Christmas morning. Sparring under the watchful eye of Claudio will definitely improve my stand up game. 

Back to the fight...
Rubens and Poliana arrived in time to warm me up, find someone to tape my hands, and corner me.
After losing my fight, Rubens stayed true to his no BS style. I was given ice, told to sit down, and then sent right home to rest. I originally planned to go hang out with my fellow gringos at Connection Rio, but he wasn't having any of that business, instead he found a truck to throw his bike on and we headed home. On the way back, I was yelled at for a good 30 minutes about how crappy my boxing was.

Oh snap, you were in the UFC
and problem number 3!

So, once I got to the fight i discovered problem number 3: I didn't have anyone to warp my hands (This is what Rob is for!). So Rubens found this skinny guy, with an arm sleeve, and some wild hair to do it for me. He was with my other friend and fellow gringo that would also be fighting Torryn Heffelfinger (while as I got my ass whooped, I walk out of the pit clutching my icepack just in time to see the legs of Torryn's opponent flying in the air as he gets thrown down, I'm going to train private wrestling classes with him on hopes of getting on his level). I know who Torryn is, I used to live with him at Connection Rio, his friend on the other hand, was an unknown face to me.

So he is taping my hands and strikes up a friendly conversation in English it went something like this.

Him: What's your favorite position (PHRASING!!!!!)
Me: Eh, I'm a kickboxer I like stand up. What about you?
Him: I invented the Anaconda Choke.
Me: ....seriously? What's your name?
Him: Milton
Me: (looks at his shirt, and my friends shirt, and about 6 other peopls shirt which says RIO FIGHTERS/ MILTON VIEIRA) "Oh shit your Milton Vieira!"

Its not uncommon for me to meet famous people here without having any clue who they are (i.e. Glover Texeira, Kit Dale, Terere, Roberto Leitao, Yan Cabral, Carlson Gracie), but this was the first time I did something so stupid as to ask who they were to their face!

On not recognizing people.
I spent a good 3 months thinking Yan Cabral was a look a like named Liam. I even googled images and tried to match up identifying tattoos with no avail... probably because Yan falls into the 10% (90% of Cariocas* tattoo huge names accross their forearms. I'm not a big fan of the style, but it makes it every easy to identify people). 

*Carioca: native of Rio de Janeiro. 
Easily identified by their lack of clothes, accent, and propensity to use curse words. 

I may have lost my fight... but at least I kept it classy, with my hands wrapped PrideFC style by the inventor the of Anaconda choke (Pride is like Japan's UFC).


You Can't Do Epic Shit With Basic People
I saw this on IG marketing a brand called DRUGS (do right you gain success)

I definitely learned a lot going through this fight camp and I have to thank the following people:

Dede: Whether Brazilians know it or not, Nova Uniao has a reputation for not being Gringo friendly. If it weren't for Dede I wouldn't be training at Nova Uniao at all, let alone doing it for free. I may be scared as hell of him, but he is the one letting me live the dream!


Claudinha: Thanks for arranging my fight, helping me through training, and making sure I always have everything that I need whether its fight related or not. I wouldn't have had this fight without you and you did it all while preparing for one of the biggest fights in your own career.


Poliana: Thanks for always being there during training, helping corner me during sparring sessions, kicking me in the head a million times, and risking your life on a motorcycle in the rain with Rubens (who is known for being a scary driver).
Obrigado por sempre me ajudar nos treinos, por me chutar na cabeça um milhão de vezes (me ensino apanhar muito kkk), e muito obrigada por arriscar sua vida em uma motocicleta na chuva com Rubens (que é conhecida por ser um motorista maluco!!!).

Rubens: Thanks for cornering me, showing up, and being one of the few people that keeps it real with me. With so many trainers at Nova Uniao it is easy to get confused or misguided, but you always have the right advice to help.
Obrigada por me salvar na ultimo minuto e ser uma das poucas pessoas que me da papo reito. Voce sempre chega com os conselhos que eu mais preciso e me ajudou muito evoluir meu boxe!

View of lagoa from the Brizolao in the Cantagalo Community 

where Nobre Arte boxing school is located. 

Amilcar: I was left all by myself the day of the fights, but you made sure that I got to and from the weigh ins with no problem! I wouldn't have been able to do it without you! Plus, I got to take my weigh in selfies with that iphone 6!!!!
Voce fala ingles assim nao vou traducir pra tu!

I was half a pound under weight and my opponent was
2 pounds over weight. I agreed to fight either way.

Tiguerinho: Thanks for all of the prefight pad work and always checking in on me. Not to mention the supplement sponsor that you helped me get even though you were running around in between classes! Even more thanks for my blue belt I can't wait to go over to Delfim and get in some training at the new Nova Uniao affiliate!
Obrigada por todo o trabalho de monapla e por sempre cuidar de mim. Obrigadao por me consiguir o patrocinador de suplemento, mesmo que você estava correndo entre as aulas deu tempo pra mim! E nao posso esquecer de te agradecer pela faixa azul! Nao vejo hora de ir pra Delfim a dar um treino com voce!

Jhonata: Thanks for lending me the patches that
I needed and for being small! Without you I would have no sparring partners! 52k all the way! haha
Obrigada pelos pats de patrocinio que precisava tanto e por ser tao pequeninho! Sem voce nao teria com quem treinar!

Naam: Thanks for being an amazing fan and supporting my fighting career in Brazil. There is nothing like a care package from home to lift the spirits! Plus your always there to give me advice... Thanks for giving me a name for my social project too!

My MiKiDo Family: Thanks to the Hess family and everyone else from my MiKiDo family that watched the fights and/or sent me messages. I miss you guys so much and it definitely wasn't the same preparing for a fight or going into battle without you guys by my side!.

There were lots of other people from the team that were also constantly supporting me and asking about the fight but I don't have the time to thank everyone individually.

Rocking a black plastic bag to cut weight! 

Stylin!

weight cut!

                                           Team Nogueira Academy in Recreio, Rio De janeiro