Issue 042
October 2008
There are few things more shocking or memorable than seeing a well-liked veteran of the sport fall to a brash young newcomer. Meet Thiago Alves, the man who put Matt Hughes one step closer to retirement. Explosive. Powerful. Heavy handed.
All the usual descriptions apply when illustrating the 24-year-old Alves’s fighting style, but few words can accurately embody his presence in the Octagon. Built like a tank made of muscle and sinew, the welterweight is like a timebomb ready to go off in his opponent’s face. One shot from the Brazilian is all it can take to make it an early night.
“I try not to have boring fights,” he says, laughing. Alves is a carefree young man with everything going for him right now. His rise through the ranks of the welterweight division was boosted by his win over Hughes in June this year, and with six successive wins under his belt he’s enjoying life and where it is leading him. “I’ think I’m in the perfect time of my career right now. I’m 24 years old and I’ve got a lot of things to accomplish,” he said from his home in Coconut Creek. “I’m in the right place and the right time, and I’m going to make the best of everything I can.”
Alves is based in Florida and is a member of the famed American Top Team (ATT), one of the most successful MMA teams in the world. With a roster of team members that includes some of the top names in the industry from America and Brazil, any fighter that comes bearing the famous ATT logo is sure to be a handful. I asked Alves if he thought you could find anywhere better to train. His answer? A plain and simple, “No”.
“We’ve always got two or three guys getting ready for fights, so every time you go into training you know it’s not going to be easy. It’s full power, full speed and everything,” he says. “Even if you’re coming back [from a fight] and you’re not in the same condition, it always makes you push yourself.”
One of the American Top Team’s secrets to success is a pressure drill called bloquei. Portuguese for ‘blockade’, bloquei is a drill where fresh opponents rotate on a fighter every 60 seconds for a five minute round. “You’re fighting five guys at the same time, they’re all fresh guys waiting for you. They know what your opponent does so they try to do the same thing to you,” says Alves. “It’s a fight you’re not gonna win! But you gotta do your best.”
With preparation like this it is no real surprise that the talented youngster is on such a run. He has stopped five of his last six opponents by KO or TKO, including respected fighters such as Matt Hughes, Karo Parisyan, Chris Lytle and Tony DeSouza. Though career was already gaining momentum, the win over Hughes has changed things considerably. “The attention changed a lot towards me [after the Hughes fight], but it was just hard work paying off, you know? When you work really hard and you know what you want, you’re doing really good, it’s just a matter of time before people start to recognise you for the work that you do.
“That Hughes fight changed a lot of things but I’m still the same, even more hungry than before. I kind of like the spotlight a little bit, you know? It’s good for the ego! It means more money, I can take my team all the way to the top, so that’s all that matters to me.”
Going all the way to the top is clearly in Alves’s plans, and ever mindful of his goal, he watched the recent fight between Georges St. Pierre and Jon Fitch with great interest. “I watched every second, it was a really good fight, St. Pierre was superior the whole fight. I think it would be a great match up for me. Every fights different, I’m pretty sure he’d try to take me down, but I’m pretty sure he’d stand up with me, St. Pierre is always surprising, I think that’s why he’s so good, because he always comes with a different strategy.
“When I fight against him, it’s not gonna be a surprise. I know what he wants to do and I know everything he’s gonna try to do. And I can’t wait for this fight to happen, because he’s the man to beat. I got a lot of respect for the guy, he’s a gentleman. He’s one of the fighters you got to look out for. I’m a big fan of St. Pierre!”
Just as before the Hughes fight, where Alves admitted to having been a fan of his for many years, the American Top Team member recognises the surreal nature of facing off with opponents whose careers you have followed. “In the beginning when I started fighting in the UFC, the guys with the big names, like Karo [Parisyan] and Matt Hughes, man I used to watch these guys on TV! But it just makes you realise that maybe the TV makes those guys look better than they are, makes things look different. If you let that thing get to your head, ‘oh that’s the guy off TV’, so what? Once you step in there, there’s no TV, no nothing, just you and the other guy, what are you gonna do?”
Before putting himself in line as a title contender, Alves has a more pressing engagement, namely a fight with fellow firebrand Diego Sanchez. The two will meet at UFC 90 in Chicago on October 25th, as Alves can’t wait for the chance to scalp another top welterweight.
“I think it’s gonna be pretty good fight, Diego Sanchez is a really tough opponent. He just got a win over one of my team mates [Luigi Fioravanti], so I’m looking forward to getting revenge for that. I’m pretty sure he’s gonna bring a lot of pressure to the game, what I’m gonna do is my pressure is gonna be way bigger. I’m gonna knock him out, like I always do. It’s gonna be a really good fight, the fans are gonna love it.”
With a win over a legend like Hughes and a fight with a star of Sanchez’s calibre on the horizon, Alves remains down-to-earth and all-too aware of the pitfalls that await should he allow his focus to slip. “Before [the Hughes fight] I did interviews and things like that, people recognised me in the street, but not as much as right now. The attention toward me doubled or tripled. You got to be very careful with that, because you can forget about the things that are important. I know what I have to do, and I’m going to keep doing it.
“You’re only as good as your last fight. You might be on top today, but tomorrow you don’t know what’s going to happen. You gotta know what you want and prepare yourself and prepare your mind. Some guys prepare but when you’ve got all the pressure and the press, they’re not the same, thank God that’s never gonna happen to me. I have no problem dealing with press or the attention, actually I love the pressure – that’s the way I fight. Once I step in there I can just let everything go.”
American Top Team: Fighting Like a Family
Known as one of the top training facilities in the world for mixed martial arts fighters, the American Top Team (ATT) is housed in Coconut Creek in Florida. Formed in 2003 by BJJ maestro Ricardo Liborio, veteran fighter Marcus ‘Conan’ Silveira and Marcelo Silveira, ATT soon established itself as the place to be for Brazilian fighters looking to develop themselves when in North America.
With hordes of world-class fighters on the mat every training session, ATT boasts fighters such as Gesias ‘JZ’ Calvancanti (DREAM), Jeff Monson, Antonio ‘Pezao’ Silva (EliteXC), Marcus Aurelio (UFC), Denis Kang (DREAM), Thiago Silva (UFC), Mike Thomas Brown (WEC), Yves Edwards (EliteXC), Din Thomas (UFC), Jorge Santiago (UFC, Strikeforce), Wilson Gouveia, Cole Miller, Gleison Tibau and many more among its members.
For more information visit www.americantopteam.com
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