Debut at 36 years old
Considered one of the great names of K-1 and one of the biggest legends of the Karate Kyokushin, Francisco Filho have been sounded to fight at Pride. Out of the rings since May of 2004, the biggest Brazilian striker ever told us in exclusive interview that he really wants to get retired fighting MMA. “… I don’t think about follow a MMA career, but I want to get up the ring to fight MMA by curiosity”, told Filho. Check out now the complete interview:
Is that true that you are promoting now a MMA event in
São Paulo ?
Actually I am organizating the Ichigeki, which means a blow, a KO. This is a karate event that was already held last year and people really liked that, it took place at a Gymnasium that did fit 800 people and many people had to be out of the Gymnasium. So at this time we wanted to do it at a biggest place, the Lourenção Gymnasium, on March 10th, putting together the MMA, Karate Kyokushin and Kickboxing categories. We will do an eliminatory match between the eight best Brazilian fighters of Kyokushin, two international Kyokusin bouts, four Kickboxing fights and four MMA bouts.
What do you have to say about the invitation of Sakakibara to fight at Pride?
I want to be back at the ring to finish my career, do like one or two bouts, get retired and dedicate myself to divulgate the Karate Kyokushin. What can I tell you is that the invitation really happened and both had interest, but we haven’t got any time to do a deal and also to get myself prepared, I am out of the rings since May of 2004. Since that I haven’t been training much and I started to dedicate myself to do some seminars and do some events. I can tell you that a fighter life was much easier some years ago. I miss my training routine. I am 36 years old and I spent 25 years training, it is not easy to stop.
According to him, you would debut against Yoshida...
I think Yoshida’s game fits really well with mine one. I like his fighting way, he treats his adversaries well, and he hasn’t any rivalry. Nowadays we don’t need to act like the past, MMA is a sport and one of my motivations to fight at Pride.
Are you already training the ground game?
Actually, since I started at the K-1 I went to train with Maurice Smith, so I was already training some ground game. At that time he was pretty good on MMA and used to give me some ground advises. Now I have two athletes from my team (Ichigeki): Magno Almeida (64kg) and Pedro Iriê (81kg), who both came from BJJ and are learning the standed up game with us. They both had already fought MMA.
So your Idea is making like Cro Cop...starts to train to avoid the ground game and keep the bout using your own game...
Yes, exactly. As I told you, I don’t want to follow the MMA career, but I want to get up the ring to fight MMA by curiosity.
Do you like any special athlete into MMA?
Yes, I like many athletes. I think Minotauro is great, not only because he is a warrior, but also because of his technique and behavior. As I told you, I like Yohshida because he is a behavior example inside of the martial arts and obviously Fedor who is really tough and technician.
What about our relationship with BTT?
Actually, everything happened between me and Bebeo. Thanks to our friendship I have been at BTT, where I was really well received, but for now I don’t have any deal. Kyokushin is a world-wide organization as like BTT, so it does not depends only of my friendship with Bebeo.
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