Issue 116

July 2014

The UFC’s ‘Pitbull’ tells FO about his secret past as a ballroom dancer.

Prior to your win against Seth Baczynski (UFC on Fox 11) you underwent four major surgeries. How did you stay motivated during the two years you were away from the Octagon?

“I talked to my family a lot. I usually talk to them when I’m broken, when I’m really bad. I like to fix my own issues. I don’t like to drag other people into it. I don’t want to spread negativity, but sometimes you need the support system your family provides to bring you up. 

“Mostly what made me not want to give up was that I refuse to settle for anything but the best. I have put my life into MMA. I have left everything behind. I have invested too much to have just given up, to have believed it was all over. I feel like this is a new beginning. I have a brand-new body and I’m able to do things I haven’t been able to do the past few years. My weight is under control. I’m walking around at 190lb or 192lb. I’m as healthy as I can be at this stage in my life. I have always told people when you are going through a hard time you just have to keep on going. So that’s what I did.”

Your issues with weight cutting have been well documented. How influential has Mike Dolce been in your recent turnaround? 

“He basically saved my career. He made small changes that led to a whole different lifestyle. I am trying to stay as lean as I can right now. That’s Dolce’s thing. He says, ‘You are like a ship and now I’m just guiding the ship slowly, and making small changes little by little until we get the ship headed in the right direction.’ Now we are headed in the right direction. Now my body is so well tuned that when I have a cheat meal it feels like I have a food hangover.” 

What has been the most memorable moment on the mats, in the ring or cage at American Top Team?

“We are always cracking jokes. Back in the day with Jeff Monson, for some reason we liked to pick on him. After practice we would hold him down, which is really, really hard. We would pick on him, not in a bad way, all in good fun. And then he would chase us around, but not catch us because he wasn’t as fast as we were. It was all in good fun. We would get at Jeff and not have to pay for it.”

What would you be doing career wise if you weren’t an MMA fighter?

“Sometimes I wonder about that but I don’t dwell on the past. I don’t dwell on the future either, though. I try to live in the present. But especially when I go back home, I wonder what I might be doing. I would try to get a good government job in Brazil, maybe run a bakery. Maybe open a dance school. I used to do ballroom dancing back in the day. I was pretty good at it, too.”

So Thiago Alves would be running a bakery or a dance studio if he still lived in Brazil?

“I know it’s very random, but yeah (laughs).”