Bruno Souza couldn\u2019t deliver under the UFC banner, losing both matches inside the octagon between 2021 and 2022, and \u201cThe Tiger\u201d couldn\u2019t deal well with the frustration of not getting a call back despite becoming a two-division champion at Urijah Faber\u2019s A1 promotion. In the ent, that almost ruined his career.<\/p>\n
Souza won four MMA bouts since parting ways with the UFC, including a pair of victories over fellow UFC veterans Teruto Ishihara and Wilson Reis, but went to a dark place in his life. The karate specialist opened up on his personal struggles ahead of Friday\u2019s match with Dennis Linton at A1 in Wheatland, Calif.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy today. I wasn\u2019t before, man,\u201d Souza told MMA Fighting. \u201cI went through a really rough period mentally last year, even though I was winning and doing things right. I won two belts here at A1, but there was always that frustration with the UFC, with going back to the UFC. It got to a point where I didn\u2019t even want to fight anymore because I didn\u2019t want to go through the frustration of fighting, winning, and not getting called back. I\u2019ve done a lot of work with my team, my psychologist, my wife, so I don\u2019t put my happiness about fighting in the hands of whether or not I returned to the UFC.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old said he \u201cobviously\u201d wants to get another chance in the UFC one day, but making that his No. 1 priority wasn\u2019t helping.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor at least a year, it was always kind of like, \u2018one more and I\u2019m back,\u2019\u201d Souza said. \u201cEven if I didn\u2019t say it out loud, that\u2019s what was in my head. You go out there, you get a finish, you put on a great fight, and you still never go back. I had to understand that \u2014 first of all, the UFC, Sean Shelby, nobody has anything for or against anyone. It\u2019s about being the right piece to fit. I\u2019m not that young anymore, I probably won\u2019t get in through the Contender Series, so I need a fight where they actually need an opponent.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to be very patient,\u201d he continued. \u201cI want to go back, of course. I want to fight in the best promotion. When I was a kid, I didn\u2019t play with toys, I played like I was walking out to fight, like I was choosing my walkout song and doing the whole performance. That was my idea of fun. I had to do a lot of work to understand that I\u2019m living the dream. No matter where I\u2019m fighting, I\u2019m living that kid\u2019s dream. Whether I\u2019m where I want to be yet or not, I have to value that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Souza was scheduled to face Ethyn Ewing in October of 2025, five months after claiming his second A1 belt, but withdrew from the card. Now on a better place, \u201cThe Tiger\u201d admits he was dealing with \u201cmental issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI just couldn\u2019t do it,\u201d Souza said. \u201cI cried every day, saying, \u2018I don\u2019t want to fight.\u2019 It had nothing to do with Ethan, nothing to do with the promotion. I understood later, of course, that I didn\u2019t want to go through the frustration again of winning and not being called back to the UFC. It\u2019s no secret that I don\u2019t make money fighting, right? it\u2019s very hard to have anything truly profitable outside of the UFC. Karate Combat paid a little better, but still not that much. I really like Karate Combat, but I missed MMA.<\/p>\n
\u201cI studied civil engineering, I had a company in Brazil with my wife. If I go back to that, whether I\u2019m happy or not, I\u2019ll be building a future. And I\u2019m giving all of that up \u2014 nine years giving up everything in my life since I started doing this \u2014 to persist in this dream. I look at my wife, far away from her family, all the problems of being here, of being an immigrant here. And at the same time grinding, working, teaching classes, doing whatever it takes to pay the bills. At some point, you get tired. There was a moment when I thought, \u2018If I\u2019m not going back to the UFC, then why am I doing this?\u2019 And that\u2019s when there was a huge crash.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was extremely lucky to have a wife who supports me unconditionally, who tells me the hard truths that need to be said, who argues when it\u2019s time to argue. But I also have all my friends, my team, my managers \u2014 who are my friends \u2014, and I talk very openly with them about everything. They all gave me a lot of support and said, \u2018Just keep doing it and have fun.\u2019 And that\u2019s all I want, to fight and have fun. I\u2019m sure that if I keep winning and there\u2019s nothing they can do. I\u2019ll go back to the UFC. Anxiety just makes you want it to happen sooner. Keep going, man. I\u2019ll win 20 fights in a row. I\u2019ll get there one way or the other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Souza feels he\u2019s in his prime as a bantamweight and his performances are now better than past \u201cboring\u201d MMA victories from early in his career. A former featherweight champion in both LFA and A1 and bantamweight titleholder in A1, Souza said he\u2019s \u201ca great fighter at 145, but a great fighter and a great athlete at 135\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy goal is to return to the UFC,\u201d Souza said. \u201cI want to be a world champion. As long as I\u2019m fighting, I\u2019ll want to be a world champion. But that can\u2019t be the motivation. My motivation to fight had become going back there. My motivation has to be enjoying it. Fight day is the best day of my life. And it\u2019s a strategy I\u2019ve already thought about: \u2018What if I beat all the champions around me?\u2019 They\u2019ll have to sign me eventually. But that can\u2019t be the motivation. And of course, [Tuff N Uff champion] Diego Brand\u00e3o, [BORROKA champion Juan] Archuleta, Dennis [Linton], whoever else. My wall has plenty of space for belts [laughs].\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bruno Souza couldn\u2019t deliver under the UFC banner, losing both matches inside the octagon between 2021 and 2022,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-448134","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}