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Patricio “Pitbull” looks to rebound from a disappointing UFC debut. | PFL MMA/Bellator
On Saturday, Patricio Freire and Paulo Costa — two of the most popular Brazilian fighters — will enter the Octagon at UFC 318 as underdogs.
The former Bellator MMA two-division champion will face Dan Ige three months after falling to Yair Rodriguez in his UFC debut. Meanwhile, Costa, who has lost four of his last five fights, will face Roman Kopylov.
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Mano Santana, a karate master and former trainer of Freire, recently offered some insight into how the underdogs must fight to achieve victory at UFC 318.
“Patricio is really motivated for that fight after the loss against Yair, where ‘Pitbull’ definitely didnt bring his best version. Actually, he fought pretty much the same way as he did in the first fight against [A.J.] McKee. Now I expect a totally different Patricio against Ige.”
Santana thinks that it could be a tactical stylistic matchup.
“I’m living in Florida and I did not participate in his camp in Natal for that fight,” he said. “But Patricio likes to face explosive opponents like him who always look for the KO. I believe Ige must have studied Patricio and will be more conservative. It´s gonna be a tough match, but I see Patricio’s footwork as a key point to control the distance and win that fight.”
Trainer: Grappling Could Be Key for Costa
Santana was in Natal when Paulo Costa spent some weeks training at Pitbull Brothers and believes Costa will have a tougher challenge than Freire.
“‘Borrachinha’ is very explosive, but Kopylov is fast and controls the distance very well. The key point to him will be to attract the Russian to counter attack at the right moment,” Santana said.
The trainer thinks that incorporating grappling could be beneficial to Costa.
“His ground game is really good, even though he only showed it in UFC against [Luke] Rockhold. Maybe it’s time to use it again and surprise Kopylov,” Santana said. “But once again it must be used in the perfect timing, counter attacking Kopylov. ‘Borrachinha’ cannot spend too much energy in the cage game in first round, because he may need it in the second and third.”
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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