With Abbadi in Crosshairs, Gurgel Tells All
The Hominick fight
Andy Cotterill Sep 23, 2006
It’s now that I bring up what might be a touchy subject, and I’m
not sure how he’d react. I’d heard him talk about his loss to
Mark Hominick
(Pictures) to nearly everyone who
approached him, never initiated by him.
“Mark Hominick (Pictures)’s a good guy, a good person, he’s great for the sport and he’s respectful.”
“But I would never fight a fight like that myself.”
“I’m a Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) fan brother: I’m going to do or die. I’m not going to a boxing match and score with jabs for four rounds and win by percentages. I’m not doing this. I’m going to fight and that’s what the fans came to see. I had to run after my fighter.”
“I think he won the money, and I won a lot of fans. Nobody is praising Mark Hominick (Pictures) for that performance. He’s a kickboxing champion and I out struck him and hurt him. I kicked him and he ran, and I didn’t run.”
“I want somebody that’s gonna come, and I either fight to beat your ass or my ass is gonna get beat down. I fight to finish. You either finish me or I’m going to finish you.”
“Hominick fought not to lose, so he didn’t come out to fight. At least try to knock me out, don’t be trying to play footsie and run. The only reason he swept me was because I was kicking him, and after the sweep if you want to do damage you have to pursue. He stepped back every time, he didn’t do anything.”
“In the first time in the history of the UFC you had a track meet inside the Octagon. I take the blame for it because I let it go to the judges. I was in the Octagon, I had the power in my hands to decide what to do in the fight.”
“I let it go to the judges so it is my fault. But I would be embarrassed of the performance if I was him, I would not be proud of that performance whatsoever.”
“He had an embarrassing win.”
“Mark Hominick (Pictures) wants to walk out with a win fighting like that, then great, he accomplished what he wanted. It was a victory and he got a paycheck, but there’s nothing good in that fight that he can look back on and be proud of.”
“I have not received so many phone calls in my career, and people coming up to me to say that I got robbed and that I won the fight.”
Jorge then tells me that UFC matchmaker Joe Silva ripped apart Hominick pretty badly backstage.
“You know what? If I’m gonna lose man, I’d rather lose like this, where everybody thinks I won.”
“There are some things that I could have done better also, it wasn’t all his fault. I touched gloves too many times; I could have been a little more aggressive.”
“But if I was any more aggressive I would have looked sloppy because I was running, literally. How can you be more aggressive than that?”
Jorge’s future
I decided it was time to move on to any future opponents for Jorge.
“There are three people I won’t fight: Hermes Franca (Pictures), Rich Clementi (Pictures) and Marcus Aurelio (Marcus Aurelio' class='LinkSilver'>Pictures). Too good of friends. There are too many good fighters out there, why would I fight a good friend? If it got to the point of a title fight, then yeah, we’d just call each other and say lets do this however we can and then afterwards be buddies.”
There is one person we know Jorge will fight, and that is Danny Abbadi.
“I know he’s a good kickboxer. I know he’s almost six feet tall and fights at 185, so he’s a big guy. But I don’t think he’s even close to my technical level of fighting. Standing or on the ground. And I’m a lot more pissed off than I was in my last fight.”
“Right now I have no love, no friendship, no smiles on my face because of my last result. I could have been meaner like my other fights, like I want to kill you. And that’s the mindset I am right now.”
“Danny Abbadi is nothing to me but an obstacle in the middle of something I should have gotten two months ago.”
“So there’s no love for Danny Abbadi. A handshake on the way in, and probably a handshake after I’m done with him. There’s no touching gloves, no smiling, there’s no ‘Hey, how’re you doing good luck.’ No. He’s in my way and I’m going there to hurt him as hard as I can.”
“I would not be betting on a long show. I want to get it done quickly and violently and decisively. I want to make a statement.”
This statement coincided perfectly with our last bites of sushi, so we’re off to my Jeep for the ride to Fitness Plus, where Jorge will be taking part of the evening classes again.
I ask him his impression of the current crop of 155 pounders, and how he compares himself to them.
“I think the level of competition out there right now, even in the UFC, is nothing compared to the next couple of years.”
“Nobody’s going to have easy fights anymore. The Sean Sherk (Pictures)s, the Jens Pulver (Pictures)s, the B.J. Penn (Pictures)s, the Kenny Florian (Pictures)s, the whoevers [sic]. When I sign a contract to fight them then I’ll start to worry about them. Until then they’re acquaintances and are in my weight class.”
“The only name I have in my head right now is Danny Abbadi. Every else can kiss my ass until they sign a contract to fight me.”
I ask if he sees himself winning the championship someday.
“Of course. I wouldn’t be in this business if I didn’t.”
We’re just starting to cross the McKay bridge, the two-kilometer long expanse of steel that joins Halifax and Dartmouth. The top is off the Jeep and the sun is brightly shining on us when I ask Jorge who his MMA idol is.
I was totally unprepared for the enthusiasm and adoration that came to Jorge’s voice.
“Oh my God, are you kidding me?”
One word.
“Rickson.”
“Rickson Gracie started my whole obsession. That man is Superman bro.”
Jorge has never met him though.
“I’ve never had the pleasure. I’m great friends with Renzo Gracie (Pictures), a huge fan, too. Royler, Relson, but never had the chance to meet Rickson.”
“He’s a hero to me. I tried to flex my neck like him and I watched ‘Choke’ maybe two million times. The stretches, the breathing, how strong his body is, how he believes and talks about jiu-jitsu … my lifestyle has developed by looking up to him.”
“One day I hope he knows who I am. If I really make it big and I’ll meet him. I don’t even know him and I hope he’s proud of what I’ve done. A long time ago I was just a kid in Brazil.”
“He probably doesn’t have a freakin’ clue who I am and it’s OK, I’m no Rickson Gracie. But he’s got a fan out there and it’s me.”
Now we talk a little more in depth about Jorge and the UFC.
Jorge is a member of “Team Extreme,” managed by Monte Cox.
“I would not want to be anywhere else. Monte believed in me. Every fighter in the world’s dream is to have Monte Cox manage them. He would not take me and work so hard to get me deals and fights to get me up the ladder if he didn’t believe in me.”
“He’s a business man and needs to make his money. If he didn’t see a potential in me he wouldn’t spend time with me. I’m his only Brazilian fighter and that, to me, is an honor.”
Monte has gotten numerous fighters into the UFC, including Jorge, who is under contract to them.
“I don’t know how many fights my contract is for. I think they can keep me around until they want to get rid of me. I don’t think they will, I hope they won’t.”
“My whole life I tried to get into the UFC. The last thing I want is to get kicked out. I don’t want to fight for anybody else, I don’t care if they offer me a million dollars. My childhood dream was to come here and fight in the UFC.”
I ask Jorge about his fight preparations, including cutting weight.
“It’s all gradual. I start four to five weeks out. I drink two gallons of water a day. That makes a huge difference. I start reducing my portions a little bit, and I go from 180 to 172 really easy.”
“Then I pick up the training to burn more calories and become really strict with my portions, nothing but plain broccoli, no sauce, nothing. I go down to 167 or 164 maybe 10 days out of a fight.”
“The day before the weigh-ins I’m still six pounds out, and those are the ones that I suffer. I don’t feel good in the sauna.”
“I do what Randy Couture (Pictures) also does. I put a sweat suit with sweatshirts on, a beanie, and walk in a normal pace on a treadmill for 45 minutes straight and the weight just sheds off me.”
“I still gain 15 pounds overnight. I still fight at 172, 173 pounds. Billy Rush showed us how to do this with the water and potassium pills, and Mike Ferguson is actually the guy that taught Billy Rush.”
The day of the fight Jorge wakes up and goes straight into stretching. He has breakfast and then back to the hotel to relax and maybe watch a movie.”
He says that he doesn’t really feel like it’s fight day until he gets in the shower.
“I take a cold shower, and you know that movie ‘Over the Top,’ when Stallone switches the hat? That happens to me and my mindset completely changes when I take the shower.”
At the event nobody gets their own room, only the main event. Usually it’s four or five fighters per room. He doesn’t listen to music but there are always lots of people in the room. They talk and try not to bother who’s fighting next.
“Everybody’s in their own little world,” Jorge says.
I ask Jorge a question that I’m sure many fans are curious to know the answer to. Why is it that as a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, he seems so determined to keep his fights on his feet, slugging away with his opponents?
Is it machismo?
He laughs. “No, I know just what type of man I am, I don’t need to prove it to anybody, that’s exactly why I fight.”
“I have a lot of confidence in my Muay Thai and my stand-up. I am a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, but I’m ultimately a mixed martial artist. That means I train everything. A fight starts standing.”
“It’s a simple thing. It can be childish, but that’s how it is. I told you I want to love what I do for a living, right? So I need to have fun out there, right? I have fun striking.”
“I enjoy getting hit and I enjoy hitting people so why am I not going to try it in my fights? I have confidence in myself.”
“People say, ‘But you’re so much better on the ground.’ OK, thanks, but I want to be good everywhere. If it goes to the ground I’m happy there too, but I like to strike and I think it’s fun.”
Aspirations
We move on to his goals.
In five years he hopes to have made his mark as one of the pioneers of the new wave of MMA.
“I’m in my prime right now, 29 to 34. Schools and seminars are always second priority until I’m done fighting.”
“When I’m done fighting then I’ll go back to competing with the gi again and take care of my school.”
“My job now is to build my name so much that my name is an entity on its own. It’s important and powerful and I can make a living just by being me.”
We pulled into the parking lot of Fitness Plus, good timing since we only have a few more quick subjects to discuss.
As has happened every day, when Jorge walks in, everyone stops what they’re doing and comes over to say hi.
It’s extremely evident that Jorge has all the time in the world for his fans. He tries to remember everyone’s name, regardless of how long he’s known them.
After a few minutes of meet and greets, the three of us retire to the club office to finish up the interview. There’s me, Jorge, and Lutador, Scott MacLean’s Argentinean Dogo puppy.
Since I’m here representing Sherdog, I ask Jorge about his relationship with the internet.
“I don’t read the forums. I don’t log on the forums, don’t post or care.”
“The fans don’t need to go that far and humiliate fighters. It’s our job. It’s a lot of effort and hard work and dedication. It’s putting your ass on the line on TV in front of millions of people with the chance of being humiliated and embarrassed live in front of your family.”
“When I lose I have to come back to 400 of my students and look at them in the face and I’m willing to take the risk.”
“But unless you’re as much of a man as I am and put your ass on the line, don’t judge me or bash me.”
“You have a bad fight you become a highlight.”
There may be bad parts to fandom, but there are certainly good ones too.
“Having my fans come up to me and saying, ‘Do you mind, I don’t mean to be a bother to you, but can I take a picture with you?’”
“I’m like, are you crazy? I appreciate it just as much as they do. They don’t get it that they make me happy that they want to take a picture with me because they think I’m a good fighter.”
“You are nothing if people don’t appreciate you.”
I ask him if he has a message to his fans.
Jorge says that his main disappointment of the Hominick fight is that he didn’t get to get on the microphone and say, “Throughout this year, through my knee surgery, through everything since TUF, all I have gotten from everybody is love and support.”
“My students are my biggest fans, I love them and they’re my family.”
“It’s ridiculous. If it wasn’t for my fans, motivating me, God knows where I’d be.”
“Thank you. I have the best fans anybody can ask for. I don’t know any fighter that has more supportive fans than I do. Thank you so much for everything you do for me.”
“I appreciate them just as much as they appreciate me.”
Jorge’s voice is noticeably shaking now, the emotions of the past few months coming to the surface.
“After I talked to you all day today I’m getting teary-eyed. All I’m going to do tonight I guarantee is think about all of this stuff.”
“Now the same bar that I used to clean the toilets in Dayton, I can park my car, and they have a table set for me with my name on it.”
He finally got his black BMW. Now all that’s left is to be the best in the world at something.
Not bad for the kid from Brazil.
“Mark Hominick (Pictures)’s a good guy, a good person, he’s great for the sport and he’s respectful.”
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“I’m a Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) fan brother: I’m going to do or die. I’m not going to a boxing match and score with jabs for four rounds and win by percentages. I’m not doing this. I’m going to fight and that’s what the fans came to see. I had to run after my fighter.”
“I would be embarrassed to come back home to my students and my
family if I had turned my back and ran in the middle of the
ring.”
“I think he won the money, and I won a lot of fans. Nobody is praising Mark Hominick (Pictures) for that performance. He’s a kickboxing champion and I out struck him and hurt him. I kicked him and he ran, and I didn’t run.”
“I want somebody that’s gonna come, and I either fight to beat your ass or my ass is gonna get beat down. I fight to finish. You either finish me or I’m going to finish you.”
“Hominick fought not to lose, so he didn’t come out to fight. At least try to knock me out, don’t be trying to play footsie and run. The only reason he swept me was because I was kicking him, and after the sweep if you want to do damage you have to pursue. He stepped back every time, he didn’t do anything.”
“In the first time in the history of the UFC you had a track meet inside the Octagon. I take the blame for it because I let it go to the judges. I was in the Octagon, I had the power in my hands to decide what to do in the fight.”
“I let it go to the judges so it is my fault. But I would be embarrassed of the performance if I was him, I would not be proud of that performance whatsoever.”
“He had an embarrassing win.”
“Mark Hominick (Pictures) wants to walk out with a win fighting like that, then great, he accomplished what he wanted. It was a victory and he got a paycheck, but there’s nothing good in that fight that he can look back on and be proud of.”
“I have not received so many phone calls in my career, and people coming up to me to say that I got robbed and that I won the fight.”
Jorge then tells me that UFC matchmaker Joe Silva ripped apart Hominick pretty badly backstage.
“You know what? If I’m gonna lose man, I’d rather lose like this, where everybody thinks I won.”
“There are some things that I could have done better also, it wasn’t all his fault. I touched gloves too many times; I could have been a little more aggressive.”
“But if I was any more aggressive I would have looked sloppy because I was running, literally. How can you be more aggressive than that?”
Jorge’s future
I decided it was time to move on to any future opponents for Jorge.
“There are three people I won’t fight: Hermes Franca (Pictures), Rich Clementi (Pictures) and Marcus Aurelio (Marcus Aurelio' class='LinkSilver'>Pictures). Too good of friends. There are too many good fighters out there, why would I fight a good friend? If it got to the point of a title fight, then yeah, we’d just call each other and say lets do this however we can and then afterwards be buddies.”
There is one person we know Jorge will fight, and that is Danny Abbadi.
“I know he’s a good kickboxer. I know he’s almost six feet tall and fights at 185, so he’s a big guy. But I don’t think he’s even close to my technical level of fighting. Standing or on the ground. And I’m a lot more pissed off than I was in my last fight.”
“Right now I have no love, no friendship, no smiles on my face because of my last result. I could have been meaner like my other fights, like I want to kill you. And that’s the mindset I am right now.”
“Danny Abbadi is nothing to me but an obstacle in the middle of something I should have gotten two months ago.”
“So there’s no love for Danny Abbadi. A handshake on the way in, and probably a handshake after I’m done with him. There’s no touching gloves, no smiling, there’s no ‘Hey, how’re you doing good luck.’ No. He’s in my way and I’m going there to hurt him as hard as I can.”
“I would not be betting on a long show. I want to get it done quickly and violently and decisively. I want to make a statement.”
This statement coincided perfectly with our last bites of sushi, so we’re off to my Jeep for the ride to Fitness Plus, where Jorge will be taking part of the evening classes again.
I ask him his impression of the current crop of 155 pounders, and how he compares himself to them.
“I think the level of competition out there right now, even in the UFC, is nothing compared to the next couple of years.”
“Nobody’s going to have easy fights anymore. The Sean Sherk (Pictures)s, the Jens Pulver (Pictures)s, the B.J. Penn (Pictures)s, the Kenny Florian (Pictures)s, the whoevers [sic]. When I sign a contract to fight them then I’ll start to worry about them. Until then they’re acquaintances and are in my weight class.”
“The only name I have in my head right now is Danny Abbadi. Every else can kiss my ass until they sign a contract to fight me.”
I ask if he sees himself winning the championship someday.
“Of course. I wouldn’t be in this business if I didn’t.”
We’re just starting to cross the McKay bridge, the two-kilometer long expanse of steel that joins Halifax and Dartmouth. The top is off the Jeep and the sun is brightly shining on us when I ask Jorge who his MMA idol is.
I was totally unprepared for the enthusiasm and adoration that came to Jorge’s voice.
“Oh my God, are you kidding me?”
One word.
“Rickson.”
“Rickson Gracie started my whole obsession. That man is Superman bro.”
Jorge has never met him though.
“I’ve never had the pleasure. I’m great friends with Renzo Gracie (Pictures), a huge fan, too. Royler, Relson, but never had the chance to meet Rickson.”
“He’s a hero to me. I tried to flex my neck like him and I watched ‘Choke’ maybe two million times. The stretches, the breathing, how strong his body is, how he believes and talks about jiu-jitsu … my lifestyle has developed by looking up to him.”
“One day I hope he knows who I am. If I really make it big and I’ll meet him. I don’t even know him and I hope he’s proud of what I’ve done. A long time ago I was just a kid in Brazil.”
“He probably doesn’t have a freakin’ clue who I am and it’s OK, I’m no Rickson Gracie. But he’s got a fan out there and it’s me.”
Now we talk a little more in depth about Jorge and the UFC.
Jorge is a member of “Team Extreme,” managed by Monte Cox.
“I would not want to be anywhere else. Monte believed in me. Every fighter in the world’s dream is to have Monte Cox manage them. He would not take me and work so hard to get me deals and fights to get me up the ladder if he didn’t believe in me.”
“He’s a business man and needs to make his money. If he didn’t see a potential in me he wouldn’t spend time with me. I’m his only Brazilian fighter and that, to me, is an honor.”
Monte has gotten numerous fighters into the UFC, including Jorge, who is under contract to them.
“I don’t know how many fights my contract is for. I think they can keep me around until they want to get rid of me. I don’t think they will, I hope they won’t.”
“My whole life I tried to get into the UFC. The last thing I want is to get kicked out. I don’t want to fight for anybody else, I don’t care if they offer me a million dollars. My childhood dream was to come here and fight in the UFC.”
I ask Jorge about his fight preparations, including cutting weight.
“It’s all gradual. I start four to five weeks out. I drink two gallons of water a day. That makes a huge difference. I start reducing my portions a little bit, and I go from 180 to 172 really easy.”
“Then I pick up the training to burn more calories and become really strict with my portions, nothing but plain broccoli, no sauce, nothing. I go down to 167 or 164 maybe 10 days out of a fight.”
“The day before the weigh-ins I’m still six pounds out, and those are the ones that I suffer. I don’t feel good in the sauna.”
“I do what Randy Couture (Pictures) also does. I put a sweat suit with sweatshirts on, a beanie, and walk in a normal pace on a treadmill for 45 minutes straight and the weight just sheds off me.”
“I still gain 15 pounds overnight. I still fight at 172, 173 pounds. Billy Rush showed us how to do this with the water and potassium pills, and Mike Ferguson is actually the guy that taught Billy Rush.”
The day of the fight Jorge wakes up and goes straight into stretching. He has breakfast and then back to the hotel to relax and maybe watch a movie.”
He says that he doesn’t really feel like it’s fight day until he gets in the shower.
“I take a cold shower, and you know that movie ‘Over the Top,’ when Stallone switches the hat? That happens to me and my mindset completely changes when I take the shower.”
At the event nobody gets their own room, only the main event. Usually it’s four or five fighters per room. He doesn’t listen to music but there are always lots of people in the room. They talk and try not to bother who’s fighting next.
“Everybody’s in their own little world,” Jorge says.
I ask Jorge a question that I’m sure many fans are curious to know the answer to. Why is it that as a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, he seems so determined to keep his fights on his feet, slugging away with his opponents?
Is it machismo?
He laughs. “No, I know just what type of man I am, I don’t need to prove it to anybody, that’s exactly why I fight.”
“I have a lot of confidence in my Muay Thai and my stand-up. I am a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, but I’m ultimately a mixed martial artist. That means I train everything. A fight starts standing.”
“It’s a simple thing. It can be childish, but that’s how it is. I told you I want to love what I do for a living, right? So I need to have fun out there, right? I have fun striking.”
“I enjoy getting hit and I enjoy hitting people so why am I not going to try it in my fights? I have confidence in myself.”
“People say, ‘But you’re so much better on the ground.’ OK, thanks, but I want to be good everywhere. If it goes to the ground I’m happy there too, but I like to strike and I think it’s fun.”
Aspirations
We move on to his goals.
In five years he hopes to have made his mark as one of the pioneers of the new wave of MMA.
“I’m in my prime right now, 29 to 34. Schools and seminars are always second priority until I’m done fighting.”
“When I’m done fighting then I’ll go back to competing with the gi again and take care of my school.”
“My job now is to build my name so much that my name is an entity on its own. It’s important and powerful and I can make a living just by being me.”
We pulled into the parking lot of Fitness Plus, good timing since we only have a few more quick subjects to discuss.
As has happened every day, when Jorge walks in, everyone stops what they’re doing and comes over to say hi.
It’s extremely evident that Jorge has all the time in the world for his fans. He tries to remember everyone’s name, regardless of how long he’s known them.
After a few minutes of meet and greets, the three of us retire to the club office to finish up the interview. There’s me, Jorge, and Lutador, Scott MacLean’s Argentinean Dogo puppy.
Since I’m here representing Sherdog, I ask Jorge about his relationship with the internet.
“I don’t read the forums. I don’t log on the forums, don’t post or care.”
“The fans don’t need to go that far and humiliate fighters. It’s our job. It’s a lot of effort and hard work and dedication. It’s putting your ass on the line on TV in front of millions of people with the chance of being humiliated and embarrassed live in front of your family.”
“When I lose I have to come back to 400 of my students and look at them in the face and I’m willing to take the risk.”
“But unless you’re as much of a man as I am and put your ass on the line, don’t judge me or bash me.”
“You have a bad fight you become a highlight.”
There may be bad parts to fandom, but there are certainly good ones too.
“Having my fans come up to me and saying, ‘Do you mind, I don’t mean to be a bother to you, but can I take a picture with you?’”
“I’m like, are you crazy? I appreciate it just as much as they do. They don’t get it that they make me happy that they want to take a picture with me because they think I’m a good fighter.”
“You are nothing if people don’t appreciate you.”
I ask him if he has a message to his fans.
Jorge says that his main disappointment of the Hominick fight is that he didn’t get to get on the microphone and say, “Throughout this year, through my knee surgery, through everything since TUF, all I have gotten from everybody is love and support.”
“My students are my biggest fans, I love them and they’re my family.”
“It’s ridiculous. If it wasn’t for my fans, motivating me, God knows where I’d be.”
“Thank you. I have the best fans anybody can ask for. I don’t know any fighter that has more supportive fans than I do. Thank you so much for everything you do for me.”
“I appreciate them just as much as they appreciate me.”
Jorge’s voice is noticeably shaking now, the emotions of the past few months coming to the surface.
“After I talked to you all day today I’m getting teary-eyed. All I’m going to do tonight I guarantee is think about all of this stuff.”
“Now the same bar that I used to clean the toilets in Dayton, I can park my car, and they have a table set for me with my name on it.”
He finally got his black BMW. Now all that’s left is to be the best in the world at something.
Not bad for the kid from Brazil.
