Vitor Shaolin :: TATAME

More than a year away from the ring, Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro gave no chances to Katsuhiko Nagata, punishing the opponent and winning by medical interruption in the first round at Dream 8. After the conquest, the Nova União black belt spoke to TATAME.com and revealed that has asked to fight against Shinya Aoki, talked about his victory in the return to the ring, his plans for 2009, the chances of André Galvão in the welterweight GP and the invitation received to fight against Gilbert Melendez, in Strikeforce, in the week following the fight in Dream. Check below the complete interview.

What did you think of your performance in Dream?

It was a nice presentation, I think I couldn’t fit certain positions and lost others. I guess I felt for being a while without fighting, when you have more training time you gain that trust. I will start to increase the rhythm of everything, of Wrestiling, Boxing, the gym, do what I couldn’t do to fight this and raise a little more... Sometimes you train something that you won’t use much in the fight, but when you see, facing with a complete different fight and ends up using a lot something that you haven’t trained much. Now I will get some fundamentals that I haven’t trained much for this fight, to use at the next one and not lose any positions and some submissions.

Did you feel this time without fighting?

Honestly, if I say that I felt a lot is a lie, because I was quite calm, thank God, and could make a nice training with my friends, because everyone knows in what I’m good and not, and they seek to train more where I’m worse. I think this has made me feel good. I started not training very well, but I ended up doing pretty confident, because I was training with people here that helped me a lot. That’s why I was confident there, I wasn’t nervous.

What did the Japanese think of your return?

I think they liked it, with whom I spoke after the fight seemed happy with my performance. I left a little from the submission and toke the rule, which allows using the knee, then the guys that didn’t saw me for a while, the direction of the event, liked to see me. It was nice to return with victory.

You won the fight using knees from the side mount position, a position that you don’t usually use. Were you training or was in instinct that you used those knees?

I was training at the gym, Danilo (Cherman) and (Marco Galvão) “Louro” were talking about this a lot... All the guard that I made, they reminded me to use the knee and also warned me to be careful with the position. So, at the first time I passed the guard and had the opportunity to lock his arms, I was free to the knee, the guys yelled and reminded me to use and I was able to use the position well. I think this is a nice rule, I liked to use elbows when was allowed and now I pretend to use the knees all as possible.

Do you already know when you will fight again?

You see Gesias (Cavalcante), for example, he hasn’t fought yet and doesn’t know when he’ll fight, imagine me that just fought... Now I have to wait. You see also the case of (Murilo) “Ninja”, who was affected by the change of opponents. Now I have to be trained, because suddenly there is a significant chance. They’ve called me, after my fight in Dream, to fight the Strikeforce against (Gilbert) Melendez, but I decided not to do it.

Your contract with Dream allows you to fight in other events?

They allowed me, but I didn’t allow me, I thought it would be very complicated, I thought that change everything suddenly would get hard with my body... Now I’ll forget this fight I did and put another focus in my head.

What are the main goals for 2009?

My first goal is to take care of my son who is born big, with a lot of health, at the same way the first came. My second goal is to train and wait what comes ahead. The first thing is to see my son born with health, then see the gym growing and the fights appearing. I’ll keep training because, if I train, things will happen.

What will be the name of your second child?

Man, because of you (laughs), it’ll be Eduardo.

André Galvão fought at the same event and won well. Do you think he is a tough candidate to win this GP?

Sure, he made his third MMA fight, the first in a big event and he showed, against a tough guy, very calm at the ground and standing part. Now it only depends on him to do a right training, because I believe that he’ll go to the final against Sakurai, who is a very tough guy, but I think he will connect well the ground game and will leave with the victory.

What did you think of the Aoki’s defeat to Sakurai?

Aoki was the Shooto 170lbs champion and then dropped to 155lbs, but I’m not surprised with his defeat because Sakurai is very tough. Sakurai weighted 170lbs and Aoki weighted 10 pounds more, I think that prevailed a little. Sakurai swept and reversed the position very well. Before the fight Aoki was also provoking, then Sakurai went with an extra dose of gas and was able to win Aoki well.

Would you like to face Shinya Aoki?

It’s a fight that, of course, I would accept, because it would be a good fight for me. Let's see if after that defeat of him I can get this fight. I've heard that it wouldn’t be a good fight, because we are two grapplers, so I need a good argument to convince them that the fight won’t be stopped on the ground, which will be movement and different fight, at first I’ve already asked and got a no. If I would face him, I would make a mixture of Hansen's game with my Jiu-Jitsu.