 "To water!" |
| From Untitled Album |
1. He’s a proud Canuck. Eh?
“I was actually born in Brazil, but I will be representing Vancouver (on TUF). I’ve been in Vancouver for over 10 years now,” say Vinicios. “I idolize Denis Kang. He’s like one of our local heroes, y’know? One of the guys I use to look up to when I started fighting. Him, Bill (Mahood) all these guys… I have love for them. They’re great fighters. They’re the ones representing Vancouver the strongest.”
2. This is time is for realsies?
Vinicios was set to star on TUF 10 before The Powers That Be decided at the last minute to change it to a heavyweight season. 23-year-old Vinicios was in Vegas when he was told of the news three days before shooting was set to begin. Producers were kind enough to invite him to bypass the TUF 11 tryouts and offered “Ossoduro” a spot, but he opted to go to Seattle to try out in order to impress his skills upon Dana White.
3. Hard luck story: check!
“I would love to be able to just do my fighting. But unfortunately I have to work two jobs at a club and construction job so that I can help out my 62-year-old grandma,” says Vinicios. “She just took on a job so I can quit my jobs and that means a lot to me so my motivation skyrocketed. I wish I had the resources not to let her do that. It feels really embarrassing to me the fact that I can’t take care of her yet. I want to do really well on this show. I work my ass off. I wake up at six in the morning. I run. I do the best I can do by myself just so I can help her out one day. My dream is to buy her a house and my mom a house too.”
 Denis Kang, Marcus Vinicios, Bill Mahood, Unidentified Dude. |
| From Untitled Album |
4. He believes, y’all.
“I believe I have the skills to take it the whole way. I believe I can take the whole show,” Vinicios enthuses. “You never know but I’m going to be working like there’s no tomorrow for this show. This is my life. This is what I want to do.”
5.He needs to have a chat with Sherdog
The Sherdog Fight Finder has Vinicios’s record listed as 6-5 but he told me that it’s is 15-3. The 6’1.5” middleweight, who walks around at 198 pounds, plans to train in Brazil until filming starts in late January. His lists his strengths as grappling and striking and he looks to finish his opponents as he usually has a bad time when fights go to a decision.
The Ultimate Fight 11 premieres on March 31st.
emma may blog 
Emma vs 2009
Posted in Amateur Mixed Martial Arts, combat sports, Honour Combat Championships, mixed martial arts, mma, Sports Blog, UFC Commentary, Uncategorized, tagged amateur mma, Emma May, Vancouver MMA on December 22, 2009| 1 Comment »
Awesome image courtesy of Sergio Mora.
2009 was crazy!
I hardly remember January. I just know that I didn’t have a YouTube account, a website, a Twitter account, an Iphone, and I’d never been to a live MMA event.
But my passion for mixed martial arts was growing. I would watch events and shout my observations and musings at the screen or the unfortunate person sitting next to me. “Look how much I have to say and how hilarious I am,’ I thought. Then it occurred to me that others may enjoy my musings, and I decided rather off-the-cuff to produce a video blog review of UFC 95. A video or two later, I noticed that the YouTube community drools over prediction vlogs and away I went!
Early in the year I watched in horror as an overweight Cristiane Cyborg nearly decapitated undersized Hitomi Akano. I was outraged by that fight and promptly wrote up a short article in response. I posted it on Bloody Elbow, who promoted the piece to their front page. That was exciting!
Image courtesy of Sports Illustrated
And, Twitter, oh yes, Twitter. I thought Twitter was so stupid at first. I actually had to be convinced to give it a try if you can believe that. I started following Chris Parry, who is an editor for the Vancouver Sun. One day he tweeted a comical criticism of a Starbucks Barista and I at replied telling him basically that he was an impatient jerk. This must have amused him and he began following me. A couple months later he approached me and asked if I was ready for the big show! Next thing I knew I was interviewing UFC fighters and my articles were posted on the Vancouver Sun website.
Denis Kang, TUF 11 Competitor Marcus Vinicios, Bill Mahood, and Unidentified Dude at Honour Combat Championships
So, yeah, it was a pretty sweet year. The highlight was going to UFC 100 and attacking Jon Jones with questions post fight while his mouth was full of pizza. The piece I wrote about attending UFC 100 is probably the one I’m most proud of from the 15 or 20 that I wrote for the Sun.
Logan Stanton does the rounds at UFC 100. Merry Christmas, Logan!
My most personally rewarding MMA work came from reporting on local amateur events. It was inspiring to talk to these young guys and gals who dedicated so much of their blood, sweat and time to develop their skills and put their ass on the line in front of hundreds of people. I felt blessed to be able to give back to them by directing the attention of local newspaper readers to these fighters, and events and do my little bit to grow the sport.
I interview a cool cat at North American Challenge 25
This month I attended the Vancouver city council meeting in which council voted to sanction MMA in the city for a trial period of 2 years. What a lovely way to close out the year. From the way the agreement was outlined it appears that only the biggest of professional promotions will be able to afford to come to town but, well, it’s a start.
Interviewing Dustin Dickson at North American Challenge 25
And next year? I look forward to attending the UFC event set to hit town in June, as well as many other local events big and small. It all started with my videos so I will try to continue producing them though I have non-MMA related goals that will be competing for my time. Basically, I’ll just keep doing what’s in front of me and crossing my fingers.
Thanks for your support in checking out my blog, articles and videos! You all made my year. Happy holidays! I wish you an awesome 2010.
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