It might come as a surprise that the man known as “The Black Belt
Hunter” is expecting to pick up a submission win in his next
outing.
Rodolfo
Vieira (10-2) will make his Octagon return against Andre
Petroski (12-3) at
UFC Fight Night 251, which is scheduled for Feb. 15 inside of
the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The middleweight grapplers are expected
to ply their trade on the main card of an event also headlined by
185ers. Vieira talked with Sherdog about this upcoming pairing, who
discussed what he expected and where he wanted to go from a
win.
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“The camp was excellent,” Vieira admitted. “We just have to make
some adjustments, because I was initially scheduled to face
Jacob
Malkoun, [Robert]
Whittaker’s training partner, but five weeks to the fight he
got injured, so Andre Petroski replaced him. [Considering] Petroski
is a southpaw, we had to make some adjustments.”
With only a few weeks to prepare for an entirely new styled
opponent, the Brazilian stuck with the basics. What did Malkoun
excel at? Where does Petroski measure up to those skills? Is there
anywhere Petroski outperforms Malkoun, and is that an issue? Vieira
believing he is an entire well-rounded MMA fighter; he did not seem
overly concerned with taking on a fellow grappler that can go three
hard rounds.
“Petroski is not so technical like Malkoun, boxing-wise, but on the
other hand we have to be really careful with his dangerous overhand
lefts,” the middleweight analyzed. “He is also a BJJ black belt and
has good takedowns too, so I’m prepared for everything he brings.
I’m ready to exchange blows and also do guard. My goal is no
secret, submit him. That’s how I visualize this fight, winning via
submission before the third round.”
In case he gets his third consecutive submission win, Vieira has no
plans to call out any future opponent, but the four-time world
jiu-jitsu champion revealed that the ADCC Submission Fighting World
Championship is among his future plans.
“I already talked to Ali to fit me in one of the future editions,”
he noted.