Interviews Rogério Camões

Responsible for the trainings of Anderson Silva to the fight against Forrest Griffin, Rogerão Camões opened the game about the champion’s preparation for another challenge at the UFC. In the exclusive interview, which you check below, Rogerão commented the athlete’s excitement for the combat. "Talking to me the other day, he confessed that he was very happy to be going to this fight, because he is feeling very well. He absorbed very well and, this time, he’s much more motivated", said Camões, who also commented the trainings of Rafael Feijão, Ronaldo Jacaré and André Galvão.

How is the preparation of Anderson Silva to the fight against Forest Griffin?

Missing almost a week for the fight, Anderson is ready. We made a 100% preparation. He was very excited, focused. Talking to me the other day, he confessed that he was very happy to be going to this fight, because he’s feeling well and the work was very well done, so he was satisfied with the result. But of course it depends much more on him than the coaches, because he has his life, he has problems like any other person. He absorbed very well and, this time, he’s much more motivated. Not diminish Thales, but the fact that Thales is a Brazilian, that whole thing, the controversy of Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai, that wasn’t a cheer for us, the fact of being struggling with a Brazilian... Not now, now we are going there to get a guy like Forrest Griffin, a guy who already owned the belt in the top category, it has a whole challenge and it became a very interesting work.

Saturday we made a sparring that impressed, because Anderson is very strong. We made a strategy... This is his second fight with 93kg, he didn’t gain much weight, he is holding between 94 and 95kg, and he’ll get there with 93kg, so that he doesn’t need to drop weight. What I minimized was the stress. We will go calm to this fight, happy and without concern. He had a big gain of strength, because, when he drops to 83kg, he loses strength by the diet, because he has to dehydrate. Not now, he is okay.

And what was the training strategy?

I prioritized the training of strength, because Forrest will hit 93kg, but must fight with 105kg. Not that he’s stronger than Anderson, but he will be heavier, so I had to work the strength a little more so that Anderson can be able to support his weight, because from strength to strength he will strike and is risky that Anderson is stronger, but the weight can interfere in some situations. I chose a work of strength and power, and Anderson is really impressive this time, man.

Who has done the sparring work?

Feijão has helped, Jacaré has helped a lot, Eric arrived from Vitória, a very good boy. Anderson is impressing everyone with his strength. I think the fight will be good, because Anderson wants to strike with this guy and, in his head, he’s going to put the man down. Technically he is great, I see him in his best moment, technically and physically. He’s a man driven by stimulus, he likes the guy who comes to punch and this fight is stimulating him a lot.

In the last fight he wasn’t very stimulated?

It was a very long training, three months, with a lot of ground, because it was a fight that could go to the ground, and it was good because he showed that he was prepared to go to the ground. This training was very boring, and this time he’s in his house.

Talking about Feijão, we heard a lot of criticisms about his gas and that he got tired in his last fight (at the Strikeforce). What do you have to say about this?

Unfortunately I couldn’t follow him in this work. Feijão spent two months in America and I would go there, but, for personal reasons, I didn’t, so his physical part was done through e-mail, and it isn’t the same thing of you being on his side, especially Rafael, because is four years working together, every day, in his corner in all his fights, sleeping in the same bedroom, monitoring closely what he eats, what he drinks... I always managed him a lot in that direction, because I always followed him, and the fact that I wasn’t with him must have complicated his drop of weight.

He had a problem because he had to lose too much weight and dehydrated a lot, so that damaged his fight. Obviously we will not justify the defeat, because the guy has shown that he really came to beat Rafael, but everyone passes by a time like this, a difficult time in his career, and I thought that was very important to Rafael. Now he had the experience of a defeat and one of the important things is that I have to be present with him all the time, because it’s my function. I’m his physical preparer and got a very close relationship with him, as father and son, and I think I pass him a great confidence to be on his side. I think he got tired, but it wasn’t because of physical condition. I believe that it was at the time of the turning to lose weight that he dehydrated too much and then failed to recover and came very weak. This isn’t the usual Rafael, everyone knows his gas.