By Guilherme Cruz

Photo Esther Lin

Renato Babalu watched closely Mauricio Shogun’s trainings for UFC Rio, and talked to TATAME and commented on the trainings of the tough guy for his bout against Forrest Griffin. On the exclusive interview, which you check below, he also talked about his career in Strikeforce, retirement and a lot more.

You trained with Shogun for his fight Saturday. How is he doing for this bout against Forrest Griffin in UFC Rio?

I’m sure he’ll be different from his last performance. Shogun is that old Shogun from Pride we all know. He came back to his origins. He’s train with us and Rafael (Cordeiro) back in California, and it’ll be just happiness Saturday.

You fought him in the past. How did this invitation to train with him came to you?

We’re training in California with Rafael. Shogun called him and said he was coming to train with us and we trained together, it was wonderful. He’s a great athlete, I’m a personal fan of his, and he’s on the right track to regain UFC’s title.

How does it feel to see UFC coming back to Brazil after 13 year?

First of all, it’s really different than the last time (laughs). Now it’s different, now we’re on a different level and we deserve it, but it’s all thanks to many people, like (1:30), Pedro Rizzo, Renzo Gracie, Royce Gracie, Amaury Bitetti, me… Many people were responsible to do the necessary job to bring the sport to the level it currently is.

Are you surprised to arrive in Brazil and realize the level of the sport here?

It’s really surprising. I guess that despite everything we’ve done, there’s one person who’s most responsible for this change: Anderson (Silva). His success brought the sport to a whole new level.

What do you hope to see on this fight between Anderson Silva VS. Yushin Okami?

He’ll put on a great show.

And what about you? Do you still have a contract with Strikeforce? What are the expectations?

We’re waiting for them to set this event on September 10th and then I’ll know when I’ll fight again. Meanwhile I’m training, I’m helping the guys out and I have my own gym, Gracie Barra Cerritos, and I’m training my athletes, my students and my family, because I see my students as my family. There’re many kids there…

How do you combine the teacher side and the fighter side?

Well, for now I’m more an athlete than a teacher, but someday I’ll stop fighting. This time is coming. Actually I’m learning how to be a teacher.

Do you think about when you’ll retire?

Yeah, I do.

You’ve fought a lot. Do you get the chills when you think about stop fighting?

Actually, adrenaline is addictive, but then you learn to enjoy teaching and follow closely the improvement of other people, and that’s the work I do with the kids. I train as an athlete, but I do a development work along with the kids and I see kid who didn’t have self-confidence and then after they started training Jiu-Jitsu they changed completely, and that’s really rewarding.