Beto Leitao, Pedro Rizzo's coach comments on his student's training to GRACIEMAG.com, he was caught by surprise at the barber: "More than the purse Affliction offered, what Pedro liked was the fact Fedor is fighting for the organization. He's on the Russian's tail, and if he beats Josh Barnett he'll be back on the top ten of the category. And we really want that to happen," began the trainer.
"Pedro is in excellent shape. And for the first time we've had a good number of excellent heavyweight sparring partners the whole time for him. Rodrigo Artilheiro, Antoine Jaoude, Jair Sorriso, on the ground Andre Marola, and several other guys. Josh Barnett is a very dangerous opponent, but the American's ground game has been well studied. He crosses his punches in from the right, closes the distance and tries for the takedown. On the ground, he tries kneebars and things. So Pedro is real sharp and has a great chance of winning. We will fly out on tuesday from Rio to California, where Marco Ruas will do some final adjusments in his training," said Leitao before bidding farewell.
Affliction
Anaheim, California, USA
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Fedor Emelianenko vs Tim Sylvia
Andrei Arlovski vs Ben Rothwell
Pedro Rizzo vs Josh Barnett
Matt Lindland vs Fabio Nascimento
Renato "Babalu" Sobral vs Mike Whitehead
Paul Buentello vs Aleksander Emelianenko
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs Edwin Dewees*
Vitor Belfort vs Terry Martin
Ray Lazama vs Justin Levens
J.J. Ambrose vs Mike Pyle
Mark Hominick vs Savant Young
* To be confirmed
