Less than a week after Marcus Aurelio (14-2-0) shocked the mixed martial arts world by choking 2005 fighter of the year Takanori Gomi (Pictures) to the brink of unconsciousness, the Brazilian spoke with Sherdog.com editor Josh Gross about the win and his career.
The American Top Team product also answers questions about his two career losses, and the dominant Vitor Ribeiro (Pictures), whom Aurelio offers a sharp opinion of.
Sherdog.com: After defeating Takanori Gomi (Pictures), how was the response for you?
Marcus Aurelio: Man, you have no idea how happy I am. Fuck, Im fucking happy. You know. Im feeling great because I said before the fight that I am going to do that, and I will do, and I did. So I trained hard for the fight. I did a lot of strategy. So, my teammates, they help me a lot. I put everything together, you know, and it worked. I beat the guy.
Sherdog.com: How long did you train for Gomi?
Aurelio: Four weeks. They told me about the fight four weeks before. I didnt have enough time, but it was good. I used the time right and I did good.
Sherdog.com: As soon as you learned about the fight, what were the first steps you took?
Aurelio: I started to train. Right after I started to train and we got all his tapes of his fights and make a strategy. And I said, fuck, I have four weeks. I gotta get in better shape, gotta improve physical condition and boxing, to keep my hands up and make me work good in the ring. The main point is I gotta put my jiu-jitsu better and better and better. I know I could submit this guy on the ground; his ground sucks. And thats what I did. I did a lot of jiu-jitsu. Everyday I did a lot of jiu-jitsu drills, a lot of repetitions. Thats why I felt good on the ground, you know.
Sherdog.com: When youre seeing the tapes of him and preparing for the fight, youre game plan is to take him down and use your jiu-jitsu?
Aurelio: Yeah, thats what I thought. I thought I know I can exchange punches but I know he has a better level of boxing. He knocked a lot of good guys out. But I knew, man, I can change. I can support that. I can give him good shots, too. I know my boxing is good too; I can hit hard, you know. So Im not going to be like crazy, because he likes to knock you out and then you go crazy. And I said no, Im going to wait him and hes going to be pissed because he always waits for people to come and then he goes. And I said no, fuck that. Im going to wait for him to come. If he comes to my distance Im going to punch him, and Im going to make him feel like fuck, hes dangerous too. I had to make him feel like Im dangerous too. If he comes in Im going to punch hard, maybe I can knock him out if he gives me the chance. But if he gives me the chance Im going to take him down and go to the ground because thats my game.
Sherdog.com: You finished him with an arm-triangle choke. Did you see when you were preparing, like watching tape, that you could catch him with that choke?
Aurelio: Yeah. That was one of the opportunities that I saw. You know, like I said, his ground is not so good so he does a lot of mistakes. That was one of the mistakes. He always gives the kata-gatame.
Sherdog.com: Why do you think you were successful at finishing with that when others were not?
Aurelio: You know what I think the difference was: I was completely confident. I think he felt this in the beginning of the fight. When I gave him the takedown I thought he was done. I gave him a strong takedown and right away I started to pass, go to the half-guard and start to punch. He was breathing [heavy]. And I said hes gonna have a hard time now. That fight made me strong. The strong takedown, the work on the ground half-guard, punching, punching and I saw he was moving wrong. He doesnt know what to do. I said man, this was a good time for a submission. He gonna give me something, because I work on my submission a lot. I had a lot of submission to give to him.
Sherdog.com: I dont know if you saw his comments after the fight, but he was asked what the reason for his loss was, and he said he didnt train enough. Do you think thats fair or is he making excuses?
Aurelio: Hes making excuses, man. How the No. 1 guy he knows everyone is going after his head. How is he not going to train for this fight? If he did this, its a big mistake. Bad for him. I dont think so. I dont think so. You know what happened? I put him in a different world, you know what I mean. Different planet. So thats why he felt like shit. Because every guy when he goes to the ring against Gomi he wants to have big balls and prove to the world he can beat Gomi by punch. Sometimes thats stupid. Im going to go there to prove how good I am in my game. Man if I need to go punch against everyone, I will do. I train to fucking box everyday. Muay Thai. I know I have a [high] level too. But, you know, strike is a strike. Did you see Azeredo and Hansen? Azeredo was doing good. He got knocked out. Stupid. If he does a right game he can beat the guy. He can punch, do a nice strike and then take him down and punch him on the ground. Work the ground. But he wanted to do a big show. He wanted to show everyone Hey, Im fucking tough. I have big balls. I prefer to go like that. I can show I can be tough too and submit guys on the ground like Minotauro does. Nobody can say Minotauro doesnt have big balls. People sometimes think stupid. Fuck. Wanderlei has a big balls. Why? Just because he exchange punches? Fuck, I know hes tough, but not because he exchanges punches. [Its] because Wanderlei, if he needs to fight on the ground, hell go fight there too. Thats why I think Wanderlei has big balls, not just because hes crazy and exchanges punches against everyone. Fuck that. Everyone can do that. Everyone can be a crazy bitch: OK man, I dont care if he knocks me out. Man, I dont care if he knocks me out when Im doing what I have to do. OK. But if he knocks me out because I want to prove to everybody that Im a fucking bad boy and dont go to the ground, Im going to feel stupid.