Shaolin: “I wanna fight in November”

By Guilherme Cruz

Photo cortesia FEG

Without fighting in the US since 2006, the BJJ black belt Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro is anxious to debut in Strikeforce. “I wanna fight this year again… I’ll see if I can fight in November, when Strikeforce plans two shows. The November 7 show is full, everybody wants to be there, but I hop I can fight and erase this loss to Aoki”, said the Brazilian, who lost his last fight for the new Dream lightweight champion.

With no opponent in mind, Shaolin trains hard in his gym in New York. “I just think about training. Strikeforce has great guys, (Gilbert) Melendez and (Josh) Thompson, but I don’t know who their gonna bring, I don’t know who’s available. I’ll wait for a definition and be ready”, Ribeiro said, commenting the title fight between Shinya Aoki and Joachim Hansen, which took place last Tuesday in Japan.

“I thought Hansen would beat his ass up, but the Japanese inverted… Aoki fought very well, btu I think Hansen is back to that inconstant phase. Aoki hold him well and annulled Hansen’s game”, praises Shaolin, remembering his last fight against Aoki. “He could have done that ground game with me, but now he has away from me, well protected with that belt”, said, believing that Aoki’s reining won’t be so long. “(Tatsuya) Kawajiri beats him without any problems”.