The Brazilian Beat
Vitor Belfort's future interesting, Rizzo helping Nakamura, Storm Samurai coming up, Local government puts Heat on hold, Brazilian Challenger coming back, Barreto flies to his Battle Zone, Wanderlei Silva's possible opponents and more!

The Brazilian Beat:
      Well, well, well! What more can an MMA fan ask for but what the coming months promise to bring? It's tough not to get excited as the month of April will bring us maybe the best Pride Bushido card ever, with several Grand Prixes coming up, another interesting UFC is on its way, including the dramatic ending of MMA's first ever reality show, The Ultimate Fighter, Cage Rage in England will hold yet another interesting edition, and needless to say the Pride Middleweight Grand Prix will finally unfold its first chapter at the end of April! It's tough to recall a busier month in terms of quality events, and the number of top-notch fighters who will be in action in such a small space of time. However, when May comes, some more intense action will be brought, as Abu Dhabi is also coming up with its world championship for the first time ever in the USA. Before we get to all the excitement though, plenty of training is going on here in this still hot country, and plenty of backstage happenings are also in full throttle, as these little details are what makes all the excitement inside the rings and cages possible all around the globe! So, sit back and check out some of the latest from Brazil, before you can't take your eyes from the TV sets or hurry to buy your ringside tickets, as FCF brings you a rhythmic beat in Brazilian style, one more again!
  • It is still uncertain what will happen next with Brazilian Top Team star Vitor Belfort, and as strange as it may sound he may still be associated with the UFC, but fight in Pride! The thing is that Vitor's contract with the UFC expired after his fight with Tito Ortiz, however word has that his contract states that he can only sign with another organization after eight months of his UFC contract expiration. In that period he could only re-sign with the UFC if they would come to terms. However, it's no secret that Pride wants a UFC representative fighting in their Middleweight Grand Prix, and "The Phenom" would be an interesting choice for obvious reasons. With Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell fighting each other soon, don't be surprised if Vitor Belfort works some sort of a deal with the UFC involving Pride and appears on the Middleweight Grand Prix in April.

  • In fact, Brazilian mainstream media has been saying that Vitor's next fight, as he is a celebrity in Brazil, will be in Japan in the month of April, and that can say something. It's not certain though if he will compete or not in the Pride GP, the only certain thing is that after a short period in Sao Paulo enjoying his wife and newborn son, Belfort is back in Rio de Janeiro training hard in the Brazilian Top Team headquarters for a while already, and is getting himself ready for any upcoming fights.

  • Speaking of the Brazilian Top Team, Vitor's long time friend Carlos Barreto departed from Rio de Janeiro to Florida on Tuesday, March 15th. Carlos will be fighting lesser known wrestler Jody Poff at the brand new Battle Zone promotion, to take place in Lakeland, Florida this coming Friday March 18th. Barreto finished off his preparation on the BTT headquarters this week and told FCF he is in good shape and eager to fight in American soil after so many years. Joining him on the trip will be Brazilian Top Team black belt Sergio Toledo, and although he didn't want to comment on that, word has that his next fight may be in either Jungle Fight or Cage Rage.

  • The Ruas Vale Tudo camp is busy once again, as a somewhat surprising guest joined the academy for a brief period of training. Japanese fighter and Pride veteran Kazuhiro Nakamura came to Brazil to spend a couple of weeks doing intense training at the RVT headquarters, under the care of no one else but heavyweight striker Pedro Rizzo! Needless to say, Nakamura's goal with this is to improve his stand up game, and get himself some better defense. This kind of cooperation may also indicate that Rizzo is really on the verge of fighting in Pride at anytime now, as he is reported to have a one fight deal signed with the Japanese organization.

  • If one thing, Kazuhiro Nakamura's presence in Brazil training with Pedro Rizzo may also reveal that there may be some truth to the rumor that says that the Japanese rising star may be fighting the one and only Wanderlei Silva in the Pride Middleweight Grand Prix first round! Although "The Axe Murderer" challenged Hidehiko Yoshida, and Nakamura has been expressing his desire to face Ryan Gracie, word has that things may change and Silva may indeed fight Yoshida's student, Nakamura. We'll have to wait a bit more and see, as things can always change with Pride. Regardless, Wanderlei Silva has been training hard and is eager to fight again.

  • Speaking about the Chute Boxe team, while Mauricio Shogun trains hard for his Pride Middleweight GP fight in April, his brother Murilo Ninja is planning a likely small USA West Coast seminar tour. Both Ninja and Shogun did a seminar tour on the East Coast of the U.S. in January, and now Murilo may take the chance to check out the West Coast scene and spread out his techniques in that area. The Chute Boxe academy in Beverly Hills, will of course be one of the stops if the seminar tour takes place. Keeping himself in shape, Ninja is possibly coming back to fight in the Pride ring in June.

  • There's much more going on in the Chute Boxe academy however, training goes intense as a new edition of Storm is just around the corner. This edition will have a bigger importance, as one special guest is expected to attend the show, as the promoter of Cage Rage, the premier UK's MMA promotion, was invited by Rudimar Fedrigo and Rafael Cordeiro to attend the show, and has accepted the invitation. With that, training is going intense and Meca veteran Fabricio Morango, from Gracie Humaita, just got to Curitiba to train a bit with the Chute Boxe team to get in rhythm for his Storm appearance. Morango is a long time friend of the Chute Boxe's Jiu-Jitsu teacher, Cristiano Marcello. Check out the Storm Samurai's next edition card, as fighters like Chute Boxe's future stars Marlon Matias, Mauricio Veio and seasoned veteran Katel Kubis will be on the card:
    • Marlon Mathias vs. Pablo Guermande
    • Wagner Tiburcio vs. Luiz Paulo Sorriso
    • Maicon Costa vs. Junior Besouro
    • Marcelo Brito vs. Jorge Brito
    • Edcarlos Monstro vs. Ricardo Macula
    • Maurício Veio vs. Ricardo Manteiga Bastos
    • Claudio "Popeye" Matos vs. Franklin Jenssen
    • Edval Pedroso vs. Antonio Negao
    • Gildo Lima vs. Aritano Barbosa
    • Gustavo Treta vs. Matheus Andrauf
    • Rodrigo Riscado vs. Alessandro Steffan
    • Katel Kubis vs. Fabrício Morango
  • Keeping the MMA shows subject, the next edition of Jungle Fight, which was originally scheduled to take place at April 9th, is likely going to be postponed to the month of May. Nothing has been officially said by promoter Wallid Ismail yet, however Ismail has been extremely busy as of recently and this may led to a postponement of the show. Fighters such as Assuerio Silva, Jose Pele Landi and Ronaldo Jacare are all still likely to take part on the next Jungle Fight card.

  • This past Thursday, March 10th, the second edition of yet a new MMA promotion in the Brazilian Northeast region took place, as the gorgeous city of Fortaleza held the 2nd Ceara Open. The show feature some matches with strong appeal for the general public, and overall had good production, and a crowd of around 1.500 spectators. The highlights were a rematch from an Heat FC 1 preliminary fight, with Fabio Bolinho repeating his judges' decision win over Savio Maia, and the main event with Deep veteran Gleison Tibau defeating Heat veteran Josenildo Rodrigues by split decision. On a side note, long time Brazilian northeast MMA veteran Rivanio Aranha also came back to action to win by judges' decision of an unknown local athlete that also uses the nickname "Macaco", however has nothing to do with Jorge Patino.

  • An unexpected piece of news, courtesy of the local government, brought to postponement once again the plans for the third edition of Heat FC, that was intended to happen this coming April 7th, in the always sunny and pretty city of Natal, Brazil. Heat promoters were caught by surprise when the Machadinho Arena, that always held the Heat FC editions in Natal, which holds up to 10.000 spectators, was closed by the city mayor to receive massive improvements and get a better structure and comfort for all of those who uses its facilities, from athletes to spectators. With that, the arena will reamin unavailable for any use until around the month of August, making it impossible for Heat to take place in April. Natal doesn't have any other sports arena of that size, which could hold such an MMA show, so now a new plan for a new date will have to be set.

  • However, promoters Conrado Carlos and Miguel Weber, who are also some of the Heat promoters, won't let down the MMA fans from Natal completely, as instead the third edition of Brazilian Challenger, which they also promote, will take place in that planned date, April 7th. Being a smaller show, Brazilian Challenger will take place in a house of spectacles, usually used for music concerts, in the northern part of Natal. Always using its octagon, BC 3 will feature former Brazilian version of Big Brother participant and Meca veteran Marcelo Dourado, facing Jorge Rodrigues from the Nova Uniao academy. A rematch between Gleison Tibau and Josenildo Rodrigues, who fought a somewhat controversial fight in Ceara Open this past week is also being considered, as well as another rematch from Heat FC 2 with Fabio Bolinho facing Sergio Junior.