Vitor Belfort worked hard during his training at the beach, weeks from his fight with Luke Rockhold in Brazil. Photo: Instagram

Vitor Belfort is the Brazilian star at UFC on FX 8, which will be held in Jaragua do Sul on May 18. He will be in the main event against Luke Rockhold, a former Strikeforce middleweight champion.

With his training intensified now that we are close to the fight, Belfort showed a bit of his preparation in a different environment. Enjoying the sun and heat in Florida, the fighter went to the beach with boxing coach Pedro Diaz and worked hard, showing he is in excellent shape.

Will Vitor win again in Brazil? The black belt today is ranked second in the UFC division, only after Chris Weidman, Anderson Silva’s next opponent.

Check out the video of the training session of Vitor Belfort:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AkRzbn8p2I

UFC on FX 8
Arena Jaraguá, Jaraguá do Sul, SC, Brazil
May 18, 2013

Vitor Belfort vs. Luke Rockhold

Ronaldo Jacaré vs. Costa Philippou

Rafael dos Anjos vs. Evan Dunham

Rafael “Sapo” Natal vs. Chris Camozzi

Preliminary Card

Nik Lentz vs. Hacran Dias

Francisco Massaranduba vs. Mike Rio

Paulo Thiago vs. Lance Benoist

John Lineker vs. Azamat Gashimov

Fábio Maldonado vs. Roger Hollett

Gleison Tibau vs. John Cholish

Jussier Formiga vs. Chris Cariaso

Lucas Mineiro vs. Jeremy Larsen

Besides featuring contests for all belt groups, there will be the added draw of paying out cash prizes for the winners of the blue belt to black belt absolute divisions and three supermatches, with one Brazilian national champion and one police special forces representative.

Pedro Silveira (Sinho) vs. Fabrício Batista (Rio Fight)

Raphael Abi-Rihan (Abi-Rihan) vs. Renato Oliveira (Rio Fight)

Submission grappling: Félix Mau-Mau (Carlson Gracie/BOPE) vs. Leandro Bad (Sinho)

Raphael Abi-Rihan controls Filipe Jerry's arm on his way to gold at 2009 Brazilian Nationals. Photo por Gustavo Aragão.

Pleased with the call-up, black belt  Raphael Abi-Rihan has been having a successful time of juggling training with his various projects (newfound paternal duties, restructuring his academy, a training camp for visiting Turkish students with his partner Igor Silva, organizing events…).

“My weekly work routine is really intense and goes from Monday to Saturday, since besides the nine groups we have at the academy, I work around six hours per day on physical activities outside the realm of Jiu-Jitsu,” explains Abi-Rihan.

At GRACIEMAG.com’s request, the 2009 Brazilian national champion lays out a routine optimized for Jiu-Jitsu training.

1. JIU-JITSU 4 TIMES A WEEK

“I have the privilege of being able to rely on a large group of students and nine black belts—the Abi-Rihan Jiu-Jitsu family—to help me with technical support, and I feel teaching is part of training for competition. I train Jiu-Jitsu four times a week, including technical, stamina, standing and fun training.”

2. METHOD FOR SHARPENING UP JIU-JITSU

“I determine which are my most advanced Jiu-Jitsu groups and pick a day of the week to train with each of them. On one day, I train technique with my Masters group at 7:30 in the morning. On another day, I do stamina training with my ‘sauna routine,’ which is at 12:30 pm with my ‘psycho’ group. Those are my students who are better equipped physically. On another day, I train standing and on the ground with the 8:30 pm group, which is fuller and has students of all levels. On Saturday, I go to the academy like a student; it’s the day I’m more laid back in training.

3. PHYSICAL CONDITIONING FOR JIU-JITSU

“I do physical conditioning three or four times a week, divided into: basic muscle workout, power lifting, Jiu-Jitsu-specific pulling exercises, and functional training. I prioritize my workouts according to what’s going on at the time. At the moment I’m doing more basic muscular and functional workouts. As the competition nears, I make a priority of competition-specific exercises and power lifting.

4. DIET FOR BECOMING A JIU-JITSU CHAMP

“I balance my diet across three categories: Health, War, and Party. The fact that my wife is a nutritionist helps me keep the three angles balanced. It works like this: At the end and beginning of the year, it’s party time. Starting now, it’s more health and less party. And closer to the big championships, it’s lots of health, war, and no partying whatsoever. The key word is “balance.”

* Health equates to eating well on a day-to-day basis, keeping a balanced diet from Monday to Friday to keep weight under control and the immune system working strong. It’s a teacher’s obligation to always be in good health.

* War equates to hard-training-specific supplements and diet. The fighter should be a war-ready machine.

* Party is a glass of wine with the wife and beer with friends while celebrating something or watching Brazilians fighting in the UFC. After all, the Jiu-Jitsu working man is human too.

5. LOVE AND LIFESTYLE

“This is my routine: I work an average of 50 hours per week, am a father and take care of my family, train with my students, and I compete because I love it. I don’t know if I’ll always be coming up with good results. I’ll do what I can. But I already consider myself to be victorious in my career because of the LIFESTYLE I lead today, thanks to my FAMILY and JIU-JITSU,” says Raphael Abi-Rihan in conclusion.

What do you think about Abi-Rihan’s routine for coming up spades in competition, dear reader? Let us know your thoughts in the comments field below.