Outside Source
Renato ‘Moicano’ was recently called out by Dan Hooker. | Getty/UFC
American Top Team coach Marcos “Parrumpa” da Matta worked hard last Saturday at UFC Qatar, where two of his three athletes won their fights by submission.
“Let’s say it was an almost perfect night with Arman [Tsarukyan] and [Kyoji] Horiguchi finishing, but unfortunately [Bekzat] Almakhan ended up losing by decision to Topuria’s brother,” Parrumpa said in an interview with Sherdog, a few hours after returning home in Florida.
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After Tsarukyan’s dominant victory, the Carlson Gracie black belt sees no other path for the Russian than the belt.
“Whether from a sporting or meritocratic point of view, I think only Topuria makes sense. After all, he was already No. 1 and accepted to fight Hooker to defend his position,” analyzed the ATT coach, stating that his athlete has the tools to surprise the champion. “It will be a war, but with the right strategy, a good camp, and proper weight loss, Tsarukyan has everything he needs to beat Ilia and bring this belt to ATT.”
Da Matta also spoke about Dan Hooker‘s challenge to Renato Carneiro, betting that his athlete would be able to win by submission.
“‘Moicano’ was quiet and Hooker went to provoke him,” da Matta said. “I thought it was great, especially since Hooker is sixth in the UFC rankings and Moicano is 10th, so it would be interesting for him. I even think that ‘Moicano’ is capable of submitting him in the first or second round. It just doesn’t make sense for us to go fight in Australia and lose almost 50% of the purse.”
True Friends and Potential Foes
The Brazilian also revealed a curious detail from behind the scenes of Horiguchi’s impressive victory over Tagir Ulanbekov, when the Japanese fighter asked for the microphone and challenged his friend and division champion Alexandre Pantoja.
“They are true friends, and Pantoja has always acknowledged that Horiguchi was one of the people responsible for him winning the belt,” he said. “And the biggest proof of that is that before the fight, Kyoji came to ask me to be in his corner, and I told him to talk to Pantoja first. He did and obviously Pantoja authorized it immediately. But I did my part. I’ve been with Pantoja for his last 13 fights, and considering that the two are on a collision course, I wanted to make everything clear.”
In the coach’s opinion, Horiguchi would be an even tougher challenge than Joshua Van for the champion.
“Don’t get me wrong. Van is a very tough kid who is hungry and certainly brings a great challenge to Pantoja, but Kyioji and Pantoja have been training together for a long time, so they know each other in detail, strong and weak points, which makes this fight the most difficult in the division for both of them,” da Matta said.
Asked about who would be the worst challenge for the new champion (Islam Makhachev) in the welterweight division, the ATT coach offered a surprise response.
“Each of the top welterweight ranked fighters brings different challenges for Islam, but I think Topuria might be the worst match,” he said. “In addition to knockout power, he is short in stature and is also an excellent wrestler, which could make things difficult for Makhachev.”
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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