10.07.2008 Gracie Fusion ready for Fury Rafael dos Anjos
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Dos Anjos and Eduardo Pachu excited
Both are lightweights, part of team Gracie Fusion, train at Roberto Gordo's training center in Rio de Janeiro, and are fighting this Saturday in Teresopolis at Fury FC 6. The difference between Eduardo Pachu and Rafael dos Anjos this weekend is that the first one will appear in the hotly-disputed lightweight GP, and the other will do a superfight for the category's belt.
Pachu only has six professional MMA fights on his record, but can rely on his finely-tuned muay thai that guaranteed him knockout wins in his last five fights. The confidence in triumph is great, as is his dream of winning his place in the public eye.
"I've been training for four months for this fight, and I can only expect to win. I would have fought (Mauro) Xuxa, but he broke his rib, and now my fight will be against Adriano Gonçalves, who won his first fight at the Fury qualifiers and only lost in the final. I don't know him, I'll try to get a video. I knew Xuxa was tough, but it's all good, I trained to fight against anybody. The GP is cool and the event is good. I expect to go far and be champion, I know I'm not that experienced, but I'll give a lot of people a hard time. I want to place overseas," declared the sincere and confident fighter.
More experienced, and equally confident, Rafael dos Anjos recently made his international debut, at Pancrase. His submission over Takaichi Hirayama yielded the black belt his eighth win in a row. This time, Rafael will battle it out for the first belt of his career, against tough Japanese fighter Takafumi Otsuka, who has already won twice in Brazilian territory at Fury.
"I'm anxious to weigh in so I can eat well. I've already slowed down my training and am weighing 75kg, I just need to lose water weight. I expect the best and my confidence is up there. I'm coming in strong and did a lot of Jiu-Jitsu and boxing. The Japanese guy's tough, is really aggressive, takes down and hits well from the top. He is coming off a win at Deep and has already beat a friend of mine from the gym, Brodinho (Leandro Issa). I will always emphasize my Jiu-Jitsu, taking it to the ground and doing my thing, but as I know he's good at defending the takedown, I'm not going to try to take him down and wear out. I'm going to strike more, use my boxing to keep him at a distance and let him try to take me down. I have total confidence and this belt has to stay here in Brazil," declared Rafael.
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