Nickuraba
12-11-2004, 18:01
Nog has some interesting things to say about Vitor returning to BTT, the Silva/Jackson fight, and an interesting observation about Mirko. Enjoy!
Tatame: How do you see Vitor Belfort's return to BTT? Rumors are that Jefferson "Tank" might come along with him as well...
Minotauro: That would be great. It's very good for our team. To tell you the truth, I didn't even know he was returning to BTT, but this is very good news indeed. It means more training for us, and Vitor is just great. We always help each other before fights. He helped me a lot when I faced Cro Cop, and he is a great friend. Unfortunately I didn;t get to assist him in his fight against Couture in the UFC because of my fight against Fedor, but I'm certain that he'll return to be the champion again.
Tatame: Your fight in PRIDE has been confirmed against Fedor... Does it mean that you are no longer fighting in K-1?
Minotauro: In all honesty, I've was never in K-1. Even when I hadn't signed my contract with PRIDE, I still wouldn't have been able to fight in K-1 until two months after PRIDE. We are very excited for this next fight in PRIDE. It'll be the biggest show of the year!
Tatame: You just returned from your vacation. Have you started your training for December 31st yet?
Minotauro: I am training, but not at full steam yet. After PRIDE I stayed one and a half months outside of Brazil. I was with Luiz Doria, and I even though I was on vacation I was still training. Then I went to Miami. I stayed with the people at American Top team, with Jason, Raymond, and I stayed almost a month there. I also ended up getting restless and trained with Amaury Bitetti... But as of today I will begin to train hard. During my vacation I relaxed and took advantage of having some time off. I spent time traveling and just relaxing.
Tatame: But as you said, you also did some training...
Minotauro: Yes. And it went very well. For example, with Amaury I trained many diverse positions, and he knows a lot about jiu-jitsu. He helped me a lot, and corrected some things too... We worked a lot on the guard and ground'n'pound. Without getting too much into it, I really enjoyed training with him. In fact, Amaury was taking some time off at the time, but he is now back in full force. He is now giving a lot of help to Hermes Franca.
Tatame: You were in the audience at PRIDE 28. What did you think of the event?
Minotauro: I think it was a good event. I thought it was funny that Cro Cop said Barnett talked too much... But then the fight itself was not so heated. Another fight which looked promosing was between Dan Henderson and Nakamura, but it did not turn out so great. But Vanderlei's fight was the fight of the night. Vanderlei was giving him a beating and I saw that Quinton Jackson is not competent. Vanderlei showed more gas. He was more concentrated and he dominated. He showed that his ground game is better then before, and he is more complete with each fight he has. It was a beautiful knockout! Arona surprised as well. He did a good fight, and a nice one too. He took a tough guy to the ground and applied some excellent jiu-jitsu. He fought like I have never seen him fight. He only used half of the jiu-jitsu that he knows. When he shows all of his technique, he'll take PRIDE by storm.
Tatame: Getting back to your vaction, why weren't you able to show up at the seminar for the SHOOTO card in Switzerland?
Minotauro: What happened is that Frota did not give me a flight ticket. I was going to give the seminar for free, but I was not going to pay for the flight out of my own pocket. Just to give you an idea, I participated in a seminar for an academy in England and I recieved $5,000. Unfortunately, the seminar in Switzerland was not going to cover my purse.
Tatame: How do you see Vitor Belfort's return to BTT? Rumors are that Jefferson "Tank" might come along with him as well...
Minotauro: That would be great. It's very good for our team. To tell you the truth, I didn't even know he was returning to BTT, but this is very good news indeed. It means more training for us, and Vitor is just great. We always help each other before fights. He helped me a lot when I faced Cro Cop, and he is a great friend. Unfortunately I didn;t get to assist him in his fight against Couture in the UFC because of my fight against Fedor, but I'm certain that he'll return to be the champion again.
Tatame: Your fight in PRIDE has been confirmed against Fedor... Does it mean that you are no longer fighting in K-1?
Minotauro: In all honesty, I've was never in K-1. Even when I hadn't signed my contract with PRIDE, I still wouldn't have been able to fight in K-1 until two months after PRIDE. We are very excited for this next fight in PRIDE. It'll be the biggest show of the year!
Tatame: You just returned from your vacation. Have you started your training for December 31st yet?
Minotauro: I am training, but not at full steam yet. After PRIDE I stayed one and a half months outside of Brazil. I was with Luiz Doria, and I even though I was on vacation I was still training. Then I went to Miami. I stayed with the people at American Top team, with Jason, Raymond, and I stayed almost a month there. I also ended up getting restless and trained with Amaury Bitetti... But as of today I will begin to train hard. During my vacation I relaxed and took advantage of having some time off. I spent time traveling and just relaxing.
Tatame: But as you said, you also did some training...
Minotauro: Yes. And it went very well. For example, with Amaury I trained many diverse positions, and he knows a lot about jiu-jitsu. He helped me a lot, and corrected some things too... We worked a lot on the guard and ground'n'pound. Without getting too much into it, I really enjoyed training with him. In fact, Amaury was taking some time off at the time, but he is now back in full force. He is now giving a lot of help to Hermes Franca.
Tatame: You were in the audience at PRIDE 28. What did you think of the event?
Minotauro: I think it was a good event. I thought it was funny that Cro Cop said Barnett talked too much... But then the fight itself was not so heated. Another fight which looked promosing was between Dan Henderson and Nakamura, but it did not turn out so great. But Vanderlei's fight was the fight of the night. Vanderlei was giving him a beating and I saw that Quinton Jackson is not competent. Vanderlei showed more gas. He was more concentrated and he dominated. He showed that his ground game is better then before, and he is more complete with each fight he has. It was a beautiful knockout! Arona surprised as well. He did a good fight, and a nice one too. He took a tough guy to the ground and applied some excellent jiu-jitsu. He fought like I have never seen him fight. He only used half of the jiu-jitsu that he knows. When he shows all of his technique, he'll take PRIDE by storm.
Tatame: Getting back to your vaction, why weren't you able to show up at the seminar for the SHOOTO card in Switzerland?
Minotauro: What happened is that Frota did not give me a flight ticket. I was going to give the seminar for free, but I was not going to pay for the flight out of my own pocket. Just to give you an idea, I participated in a seminar for an academy in England and I recieved $5,000. Unfortunately, the seminar in Switzerland was not going to cover my purse.