Marcos da Matta, 'Parrumpinha', is the guest on the second episode of 'It'sTime!' . Without a break, after preparing Alexandre Pantoja to face Kai Asakura at UFC 310 and joining Arman Tsarukyan 's training camp to face Islam Makhachev at UFC 311 , the Brazilian coach took some time to talk about his career, the beginning of his story as a fighter, and the current state of MMA with SUPER LUTAS.
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America Top Team Success
One of the first topics of the exclusive SUPER LUTAS chat was the relevance achieved by Parrumpinha's gym. According to the trainer, the beginning was difficult – even due to the greatness of the brand – but today the achievements achieved are a source of great pride.
Parrumpinha and some of the ATT students in Palm Beach, Florida. Photo: Reproduced from Instagram/parrumpaatt
“It was a milestone, right? Before America Top Team/After America Top Team. We already saw that [the gym] was born a little big, it was a big baby, right? And we started to crawl, we started going to local events, we started to have success in local events, until we had our first athlete in the UFC…” he recalled.
“We made a lot of mistakes in the beginning regarding several things: training, hiring coaches who didn’t work out, letting athletes shit in the gym, ego here, ego there… so we made a lot of mistakes, but corrected the mistakes until we arrived at the formula that we use today to get the results we had in the last 10 years, which was really the greatest rise of América Top Team, having champions in all the events in the world.” he said.
Jiu Jitsu from a Gracie
In 1997, Marcos Da Matta became a black belt in Jiu Jitsu. He received the degree from Carlson Gracie. In the podcast, Parrumpinha recalled his training in Rio de Janeiro. He spoke with great pride about his time at Carlson's academy and told stories from that time.
“It’s something that really left a mark on my life. The figure of Carlson, a solid figure, just the way he was, a wonderful guy, a guy who taught me a lot, many things… without knowing it. After he died, he continued teaching me: how to make champions, how to deal with champions,” he reveals.
“My story with Pantoja is very important. Very cool, very beautiful. And one of the things he always said was the following: 'I am very proud to be a UFC champion trained by an athlete from Carlson Gracie. I always wanted to be part of Carlson's academy, but I couldn't.' But one of the reasons he sought me out to train at America Top Team and train with me was this,” he said.
Champion mentality
Parrumpinha and the flyweight champion (up to 56,7kg) Alexandre Pantoja . Photo: Reproduction Instagram/parrumpaatt
Regarding dealing with champions, the rule is clear: no one is a champion until they win the belt again. Parrumpinha was emphatic when commenting on the mental work with flyweight champion (up to 56,7kg) Alexandre Pantoja.
“Pantoja is no longer the champion. He will try to win the belt again. All the fighters in the 125-pound category, which is 57 [kilograms], wake up, train and go to sleep thinking about how to beat Pantoja, because Pantoja is number 1 in the world.” he said.
Belt dispute
Arman Tsarukyan 's preparation to face Islam Makhachev was also discussed on the program. The Brazilian coach is at the Russian's training camp for the fight scheduled for January 18th at UFC 311.
“Arman is a very easy guy to work with, he is an athlete in every sense, a super focused guy, a guy who learns things easily… you show him a new position once or twice, he is already putting it into his repertoire, and if given the chance he will do it. He is a very disciplined guy, very focused, very respectful, so he is an easy guy to train. And God willing, on January 18th we will put everything we trained into practice,” he said.
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