By Guilherme Cruz

Photo Esther Lin

Responsible for sharpening the striking skills of Vitor Belfort, who fights Anthony Johnson at UFC Rio, this Saturday (14th), “Sugar” Ray Sefo analyzed the bout. Since it could not be any different, he bet the Phenom will get a knockout when fighting in Rio de Janeiro, his hometown, for this first time in his career. On an interview with TATAME this Thursday (12th), the fighter talked about the expectations for fighting in Strikeforce again, comment on how he will conciliate coaching with training as a competitor and a lot more.

How was Vitor’s preparation for this fight?

Preparation’s great, you know. In our training camp we’ve had Marcel, Durinho, Gil Martinez, we had a great camp. We had ten, maybe 15 people in camp, so it was a good camp. To top it all, we got to spend the last two weeks here in Brazil to get used to the time, because, as you know, the guys are fighting 2, 3 o’clock in the morning. That’s the first time I had to experience that, but I’m sure that Vitor right now is acclimated.

You’re obviously working on his stand-up for Johnson. How is he doing?

His striking is sharp. We know Anthony Johnson likes to kick, we know he likes to wrestle, his Wrestling is his background, but we think he’s gonna probably stand a little bit and that he’s gonna try to wrestle and the longer he keeps standing, the greater are the chances to knock him out because on the ground we just gonna have to submit him because Vitor’s Jiu-Jitsu’s a million times better than Anthony’s. We’re not concerned. Obviously it’s a dangerous fight, he’s a great fighter, but we feel we’ve done everything to get Vitor prepared and ready for it.

How do you see this fight ending?

I’m thinking a knockout. It can go either way. It can be a submission, but I’m thinking it could be a knockout.

You recently fought in Strikeforce. Do you have plans on fighting again?

Yes. I’m waiting some things to be confirmed by March, but I’m 100%, I’m still active, I still really wanna compete, which unfortunately last fight I had only a week because it was Vitor’s camp, I had one week to prepare for the ground, but a fight it’s a fight. You got do the best you can and I’m just looking forwards for my next fight and hopefully I’ll get luckier next time.

Do you think coaching disturb you from training for yourself?

Absolutely. At the end of the day, stand-up comes naturally to me, but the ground doesn’t. So you gotta spend time for it to come natural. And now I have time to prepare and I want to have time for my own training, because we were busy with Vitor’s camp. I guess that’s it. No excuses. At the end of the day, you have to work as much as you can, and that’s was what I could. By the time they asked me to fight, Vitor was already in camp, so I wasn’t gonna stop the camp, because as a coach, my first responsibility at that time was Vitor and I accepted the fight, so to take responsibility to myself, but I can’t do that continuously if I wanna keep competing. Obviously if I’m in camp and I’m invited I’ll turn the fight down because as I’m fair to myself and as I’m fair to the guy I’m coaching.

If you sign a fight for March, will you train with Durinho?

Of course. That’s what we wanna do right now. We spoke a lot about it and when Durinho comes back to Vegas we’re gonna spend a lot of time working on our Jiu-Jitsu, on the ground. I’m also gonna train with Robert Drysdale because he’s got a good camp and he’s a great coach as well, so.