Brunno Ferreira will look to return to the win column at UFC
Baku. | Getty/UFC
Brunno
Ferreira will look to return to the win column when he faces
Ikram
Aliskerov at UFC
Baku on Saturday.
“Hulk” arrived in Baku, Azerbaijan, with coach Andre “Dida” this
past Thursday. Ferreira was initially supposed to face Aliskerov at
UFC 318 last July before his opponent withdrew from the event due
to injury. Instead, Ferreira submitted replacement opponent Jackson
McKey in the first round.
“That fight should have happened before, but Ikram hurt his foot
six days before the fight. The opponent changed [then], but we had
already studied his game a lot,” Dida, the Brazilian TKO head
coach, told Sherdog.com. “I´m very impressed with the fans here.
They are very excited about the event. Baku breathes fighting. They
have a big statue of a wrestling champion on the street of the
hotel.”
“‘Hulk’ wanted to arrive on Thursday, so we can get totally adapted
to the local time zone. He is coming very prepared for this fight.
Ikram fights the same way since his Brave tenure. ‘Hulk’ is more
unpredictable and also has a good judo and jiu-jitsu game, He also
has KO power. So he has all the tools to surprise and neutralize
the Russian.”
Assessing ‘Poatan’ and ‘Shogun’
With the experience of having trained Bruno Silva
to face Alex
Pereira, “Dida” also analyzed the Brazilian’s loss to Ciryl Gane
at UFC White House.
“Poatan took a lot of punches. He was counting a lot on his range
advantage at middleweight and light heavyweight. If it were not for
that advantage, “Blindado” would have hit him more when they
fought. I predicted that at heavyweight, where he lost his reach
advantage, fighting a guy like Gane with long range that moves like
a welterweight would give him problems. I cheered for him, but
unfortunately my prediction came true.”
“Dida” is also training Mauricio Rua
to face Glover
Teixeira under boxing rules at Spaten Fight Night 3 in
August.
“‘Shogun’ is training every day at my academy in Curitiba,” he
said. “Yesterday he called me to say how happy he is that he has to
train for only one discipline for this fight since he trained MMA
all his life. He is really motivated and so am I. After all, the
promotion couldn’t have choen a better main event, because Glover
and ‘Shogun’ are both very aggressive fighters always looking for
the KO. There is no way this fight will not be exciting.”