Paulo Thiago possibly saved from the axe by “Fight of the Night” bonus award says coach
UFC welterweight submission specialist, Paulo Thiago could get a reprieve from being axed by the Las Vegas based promotion despite losing his last two bouts inside the octagon after he picked up one half of the “Fight of the Night” bonus award on Saturday night.
Speaking via Tatame Magazine, Ataide Jr., his coach back home in Brazil, explained:
“What saved me was the bonus for the best fight of the evening… I think that he’s got a chance of coming back. He did a great first round, but then he started to decrease his performance, and Diego started to improve.”
“We’ll come back to Brasilia to get the team together, watch the fight again and to understand what happened… We can’t understand, Paulo is doing great on the trainings and can’t give it all during the fight. The game plan was not to go to the floor on the bottom and attack a lot while standing up, but we couldn’t do it”.
“We get a wonderful support from the Police, but I think that (what’s lacking) the focus on the trainings, more dedication. In Brazil we suffer a lot because of the lack of sponsorship, but we have to fix his training load.”
“If Ultimate gives him another shot, it might be on an undercard fight. Since he joined (UFC) he’s only fought really tough guys, but I think they’ll give him another chance. They usually renew before the last fight on the contract, so we’ll see what they’ll do.”
It was revealed before Saturday’s event in Anaheim, California that the talented Brazilian had been working 24-hour shifts at his day job with the special police in order to get the next two days off to concentrate on his training. Hardly the best way to prepare to take on a world class fighter inside the octagon…
By Michael Pepper. (Follow me on Twitter)
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