Dozens of fighters enter the UFC every year through Dana White\u2019s Contender Series, but Rodrigo Sezinando feels special that he\u2019s doing so via the old-school way of The Ultimate Fighter.<\/p>\n
The reality show finished its 33rd season recently and Sezinando will battle Daniil Donchenko, a fellow member of Team Cormier on the program, for the welterweight trophy at Noche UFC 3, Saturday night in San Antonio, TX.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think TUF is way more interesting [than DWCS] because I\u2019ll watch the show again in 20 years, and I\u2019ll still have the same feeling I have today,\u201d Sezinando told MMA Fighting. \u201cIt\u2019s in history. I think TUF is harder [than DWCS] because you know you have to fight more than once and you have to train with guys that can end up being your opponents, just like it happened to me. I fought a guy that was training with me, and now I\u2019m fighting another teammate \u2014 and I had to fight twice in 13 days.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 170-pound prospect left Niteroi, Brazil for Canada after winning a fight \u201cI was supposed to lose\u201d in Vancouver in March 2023. Sezinando worked in construction while juggling his career before settling only for private martial arts classes, and went on to win three more fights in Canada \u2014 all for titles \u2014 to get a call from the UFC.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had already fought twice in title fights in Canada and got an offer to fight in Montreal, across the country and a division up,\u201d Sezinando said, \u201cbut that\u2019s like chopping a tree from top to bottom. Everybody\u2019s head and chin are equal. I had a good fight, knocked him out in the first round, and that\u2019s what brought me to the UFC.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sezinando said he was originally approached with a fight on DWCS but the UFC brass \u201cliked my personality\u201d, moving him to TUF instead. His dream was to be on Cormier\u2019s team, and ended up being Cormier\u2019s No. 1 pick at welterweight.<\/p>\n
The welterweight final was originally scheduled for UFC 319 on Aug. 16, but Sezinando injured his ankle while running in the streets of Chicago during his weight cut.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m fine mentally,\u201d Sezinando said. \u201cThe body is already recovered. I know I won\u2019t be 100 percent there, but the 50 percent will be more than enough because no one wants it more than I do. I\u2019ll be ready, I\u2019ll be willing, so let\u2019s go for this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regardless of the outcome at Noche UFC, Sezinando said his \u201cmain goal\u201d is to cut down to 155 pounds for the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll win this fight and start to organize my life to fight at lightweight,\u201d Sezinando said. \u201cI think that\u2019s my division. I think I\u2019ll be a big, strong, fast and explosive lightweight. I\u2019ll feel more comfortable doing what I want because my cardio will be better. I feel like I\u2019m carrying a weight that isn\u2019t mine when I fight at 170. I\u2019ll either do some work to get stronger at 170, or cut down to 155 and get big there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dozens of fighters enter the UFC every year through Dana White\u2019s Contender Series, but Rodrigo Sezinando feels special…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702],"class_list":["post-136812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}