Outside Source
With four elite members of the team in or around the rankings in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the team that earned the 2024 World MMA Award for the “Gym of the Year,” had everything coming up roses. However, the 2025 campaign for those four athletes—Jean Silva, Carlos Prates, Mauricio Ruffy and Caio Borralho—has not gone perfectly, with all four Brazilians suffering losses.
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Multiple defeats for what was a burgeoning team, one luring in new talent around the promotion including Bruna Brasil and Michal Oleksiejczuk to name a few, put the Fighting Nerds at a crossroads. Coach Sucupira, also called “The Alchemist,” made a point to cool down some of the rhetoric about whether his team was made up of frontrunners or had already peaked. When speaking to Sherdog, the leader of this team showed humility and leadership spirit by taking responsibility for the losses of his athletes. He was, however, also willing to share his concerns about keep the team together during the tough times.
“Half of my job is to trace the right game plan; the other half is to make the athlete believe that and follow it,” the coach explained in regards to Silva vs. Diego Lopes at Noche UFC. “And I failed in that part. What I can do now is think what could I have done differently to make Jean believe in our game plan and follow it.”
During the UFC Fight Pass Brazil broadcast of Noche UFC, after the first round of the main event between Silva and Lopes, Sucupira made clear to his pupil that he had five rounds to work. He reiterated their game plan was to avoid the brawl and control his distance and aggressiveness, winning the fight one round at a time. Silva could not resist his urges to throw down with his opponent, and ended up getting knocked out. Rather than place the blame on his athlete for not following their strategy, Sucupira shoulders that burden himself.
“What I can guarantee to you is that we had a lot of conversation after that fight and the next fight you will see a different Jean Silva, much more strategic. Just like Fighting Nerds, Jean wrote the first chapters making him recognized. Now he will start to write the next chapters until the belt,” Sucupira promised.
Revenge of the Fighting Nerds
During his conversation with Sherdog, “The Alchemist” also revealed that Prates is already in the final stages of his camp to face Leon Edwards at UFC 322 in November.
“Prates is a great example of how Fighting Nerds are able to evolve after a defeat,” Sucupira gushed. “After his first loss to Ian Garry, he [put on his best performance in the] UFC against Geoff Neal and now will face the former champion. And I truly believe that if he gets an impressive KO against the No. 4 ranked welterweight and [champion] Jack Della Maddalena also gets a KO [against Islam Makhachev], I see great chances of UFC making this title fight in the [future]. Even aware that there are other guys who [probably] deserve [to fight for the belt] more.”
While Prates could a win away from vying for gold, lightweight teammate Ruffy may have a bit more climbing on the 155-pound mountain to go. The 29-year-old was riding a seven-fight win streak with six knockouts into his pairing with Benoit St. Denis at UFC Paris in September. The Frenchman pulled off a face crank to make Ruffy surrender for the first time in his career. His coach believes that Ruffy will need to take some time off after that setback, while pointing out that the athlete who based his fighting name off of “One Piece” main character Monkey D. Luffy is traveling to train with other camps around the world.
“After City Kickboxing, you will see him training in many other teams in Brazil and around the world,” Sucupira boasted. “And I gave him my whole support to do so. We didn’t talk about his Octagon return plan, but I believe he should be back between January and February.”
Like his aforementioned teammates, Borralho too ended a long win streak with a recent loss, his coming to Nassourdine Imavov in the match immediately following Prates vs. St. Denis. The coach believes that the defeat to Imavov may be exactly what Borralho needs to evolve further.
“If you count [Borralho’s appearance on Dana White’s] Contender [Series], he was coming from nine wins straight. I see Caio rescuing his essence in the beginning of UFC, more focused. The team was kind of scattered; I think that this sequence of defeats will be important to regroup. More important to think about who made mistakes is to make the team united. I think even the world of MMA is expecting that. Will Fighting Nerds keep united after these four losses? That’s my main goal now. Keep the team united, and from now on, rescue the Nerd essence that made us grow so fast and return to the win path,” “The Alchemist” concluded.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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