Training: On Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, Muay Thai, after which I do physical conditioning; in the afternoon, almost night time, I do submission grappling.

What ranks and titles have you held? WEC Featherweight Champion, Four-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu champion, World jiu-jitsu champion, Black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Do you have any heroes? Mike Tyson

Did you compete in any other sports? I was a semi-professional soccer player when I was younger but left just as I was turning pro, as I had already been training fighting too and I seemed to be more inclined to fight sports. But I'm a good soccer player too. It's just that my soccer changed after I started training fighting. I also competed a lot in Jiu-Jitsu and submission grappling. I became world champion in Jiu-Jitsu as a brown belt. I even beat the current 3-time featherweight black belt world champion Rubens Charles "Cobrinha" in the semifinals that year. That was the last year I competed in Jiu-Jitsu, as my MMA career was picking up.

Who were your training partners for this fight? For this fight there's Ronys Torres, Hacran Dias, Marlon Sandro, Johnny Eduardo, Felipe Olivieri, Walber, Marcos Loro, Eduardo Dantas, among others on the team.

What is your motivation? My motivation is to defend the belt. Winning it was always my dream, and I’m not going to let Urijah take that away from me.