Eric Albarracin has plenty to keep him occupied these days.
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The wrestling coach of Deiveson
Figueiredo, Henry
Cejudo, Patricio and Patricky
Freire is currently splitting time between Natal, Brazil, at
the Pitbull Brothers camp and Fight Ready in Arizona. The currently
priority is the helping the Freire brothers prepare for upcoming
title defenses.
Albarracin is well aware of the Dagestan vs. Brazil rivalry that
seem to be brewing in MMA these days, thanks in large part to the
upcoming UFC lightweight title bout between Islam
Makhachev and Charles
Oliveira. Meanwhile, the undefeated Usman
Nurmagomedov recently took to Twitter to call for a showdown
with Patricky
Freire, who withdrew from a scheduled title defense against
Sidney
Outlaw last month due to injury. His next fight has not been
announced by Bellator MMA.
“Khabib was 29-0, Makhachev is 22-1, Usman is 15-0, there is no
doubt their game plans are working, but that doesn’t mean they
don’t have holes to be exploited in their game,” Albarracin told
Sherdog.com.
This is not the first time the wrestling coach has considered
Dagestan to be an athletic rival.
“When I lived in the American Olympic training center, our goal was
to beat Dagestan for the next 20 years,” he said. “We joined all
the team trainers in a meeting, we studied many of their vídeos,
all their techniques, and we brought some retired fighters that
wanted to live in the USA. Our main trainer was Sergei Belaglazov,
a two-time Russian Olympic champion and we got great results after
that, too.”
Albarracin would not be opposed to Chute Boxe and the Pitbull
Brothers “uniting forces” to help strengthen their cause against
the Dagestani fighters.
“The most important thing is not to try to beat them in their game.
We are better strikers and on the ground, we must open our minds to
make a strategy to beat them, because until now we have to
recognize nobody did,” he said.
Albarracin believes living in California is an advantage for
Makhachev.
“At [American Kickboxing Academy], he is able to train with the
best BJJ and ADCC champions, in addition to wrestlers and great
strikers,” Albarracin said. “Unfortunately in Brazil we don’t have
a wrestling world champion in the region. The big disadvantage
Oliveira could have is to feel that style for the first time
only in the Octagon. If Charles doesn’t have sparring and
trainers familiar with the Khabib and Makhachev style, they must to
look for it.“
Albarracin advised Oliveira’s coach, Diego Lima,
to seek help from surrounding countries in preparation for the UFC
280 main event.
“Dagestan is very small, about the same size as Copacabana or Natal
— everybody knows each other there,” Albarracin said. “He should
look for some top guy in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan or Kazakhstan,
which are also wrestling powers. That’s what I did when Deiveson
fought Moreno last time. I brought a guy who was nicknamed ‘Mini
Khabib,’ but he didn’t even know who Khabib was. Charles will have
to adapt himself to that style.”