Australian Steve Erceg hopes the ordinary exit of coaching in a automobile landscape at evening may have him primed for luck when he faces Brazilian Alexandre Pantoja for the UFC flyweight belt in Rio de Janeiro this weekend.
Erceg is simply 3 fights into his UFC profession, however his admirable performances over the time yr ruthless he’s now only one win clear of turning into a global champion.
The chances are neatly and in reality stacked in opposition to Erceg on Saturday evening (Sunday EST).
Now not most effective will the 27-year-old be taking over the most efficient UFC flyweight on the planet, he can be greeted by means of a parochial nation chanting “uh vai morrer”, which interprets to “you’re going to die”.
“For every single UFC event in Brazil when you see the foreigners walk out against a Brazilian, they’re getting yelled at like that,” Erceg advised AAP from his bottom in Brazil.
Any other tough facet dealing with Erceg is the past of the combat, which will probably be held at about 1am at Farmasi Enviornment.
The West Australian has get a hold of a novel strategy to acclimatise – protecting late-night coaching classes within the automobile landscape of his Brazilian lodge over the time two weeks.
“We are trying to train at roughly the time of the fight, so we’ve been up pretty late,” Erceg mentioned.
“We run five or six kilometres most nights. And out the front of the hotel, there were no mats or anything, so (we’ve been using) hit pads outside the hotel every night.
“Early on no person truly looked as if it would hassle us, and upcoming nearer to the combat lovers began arriving and taking extra pictures.
“It’s different now because the UFC staff are here, so we have proper workout rooms.
“However till the day gone by, we have been within the automobile landscape.”
Life in Brazil has its dangers, with Erceg seeing first-hand just how dangerous the Favelas can be.
“There have been constructions on manage of constructions,” he mentioned.
“There was once one boulevard that was once popping off, they usually mentioned, ‘you’ll’t move up in that boulevard, as a result of there are public with weapons over there’.
“We didn’t hear any gun go off, but apparently there were some people around that we shouldn’t go looking for.”
Erceg couldn’t aid however realize the flyweight belt when his face-off with 34-year-old Pantoja was once held this era on the iconic Parque Bondinho Pao de Acucar.
“I looked at it briefly. It was way shinier than I expected,” the Australian mentioned.
“The belt is like a cool memento to say what you’ve accomplished.
“However the factor I’m upcoming is being the hardest man on the planet. That’s why I began.
“To fight and beat who people think is the toughest guy right now, that’s what means the most to me.”
