Rodolfo Vieira, the “black belt hunter”, thought he might never fight again following his last outing against Wellington Turman. A congenital anomaly in his brain put Vieira’s entire MMA career on hold, but ahead of his loss to Chris Curtis, Vieira joked to MMAFighting that the UFC was “testing his brain”.
“[UFC] already threw a killer at me. I said, ‘Man, the UFC wants to test my brain to see if it’s OK?’ They gave me a southpaw, a dangerous knockout artist, and I said, ‘Cool, let’s do it.’ I just went through a scare because of my brain. Instead of giving me a grappler, someone that doesn’t hit that much on the feet so we can grapple, do some jiu-jitsu, at least on this first one back. But, ‘No, let’s see if he’s really good.’ [Laughs.]”
Vieira: “UFC wants to test my brain” With Curtis Fight
He reflected on the nature of his brain anomaly. “Many people asked me if I felt anything, any dizziness or fainted or any other s***.
Nothing happened, I was living my normal life. I did the MRI because it’s been four years since my previous one and I needed to do it again, and that’s when doctors spotted that malformation and got worried. They were a bit scared and asked me to do more exams.
When I left [and got cleared], my manager already called me asking when I wanted to fight again, so it was all worth it. Imagine waiting a month and a half for this result and not knowing what was going on? No way.”
The biggest worry, he said, was having to leave his career in the Octagon behind. “I was trying to stay positive but I thought, ‘I’ll be ready if the worst comes.’
It was hard for me. I didn’t want to go back to jiu-jitsu, having to teach classes. I said, ‘F***, I didn’t want to teach jiu-jitsu now, I’m still healthy to fight for eight or nine more years and try to build something in MMA.’ Having to stop fighting at 32 would suck.
It was a big relief, I was very happy with this opportunity God has given me. He’s made me go through this to, I don’t know, test my will, to see if that’s what I really wanted, and I saw how much I wanted to continue in this sport.”
What do you think of Vieira’s prospects moving forward? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
