For many years, Leandro Vieira was responsible for sharpening the
ground skills of American Kickboxing Academy fighters.
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For the last two years, however, the brother of legendary Leonardo
Vieira did not renew his contract with AKA and instead decided to
focus 100% on his jiu-jitsu classes.
“The way everything finished with AKA, even still having many
friends out there, I decided to not work with MMA [fighters]
anymore,” the black belt said.
Vieira changed his mind upon receiving an invitation from UFC
bantamweight contender Marlon
Vera.
“Actually we knew each other on ‘TUF: Latin America,’ where I was
the BJJ coach for [Cain] Velasquez and he was from the [Fabricio]
Werdum team,” Vieira said. “Two years ago we met again at RVCA and
I showed him some tips on knee control, and he got mad and invited
me to train with him. Since his fight with [Sean] O´Malley, we have
been working together. I had no doubt he was going surprise
O’Malley, just like he surprised Dominick [Cruz] last Saturday. In
his last fights he didn’t need to show his ground skills, [but]
when he needs to, people will be impressed by him.”
Given his history with AKA, Vieira weighed in on the UFC 278
co-main event between his friend, Luke
Rockhold, and Paulo
Costa. Vieira believes Rockhold should be the clear favorite if
he sticks to a game plan.
“That’s always the big question mark concerning Luke,” Vieira said.
“If he fights the same way he fought Lyoto [Machida], I have no
doubt he will beat ‘Borrachinha,’ but will he be able to follow the
best game plan?”
According to Vieira, Rockhold is better than Khabib
Nurmagomedov on the ground.
“He has more pressure on the ground than Khabib,” Vieira said.
“Besides that, he has great takedowns and a great reach advantage
for the division. If he was able to put everything together and
follow the correct game plan I have no doubt he would still be the
champion. But the careless way he follows his tactical game made
him reach the current point. If he fights the way he has been doing
in his last [few] fights, ‘Borrachinha’ will win, but if he uses
the weapons he has, I have no doubt he will finish with his hand
raised.”