UFC 134: Ross Pearson training with champions for Edson Barboza test in Brazil

Ross Pearson

Ross Pearson will walk into a caldron when he steps into the sold-out HSBC Arena in Rio, Brazil in the early hours of Sunday morning to take on unbeaten local Edson Barboza at UFC 134.

Sunderland bricklayer turned ultimate fighter Pearson, who’s earthy approach to mixed martial arts has earned him the name ‘the Real Deal’, knows he’s going to be lustily jeered by the 16,000 Brazilians who have already been whipped into a fever with the UFC’s first event since the late 1990s. In the thirteen-year absence from Rio, the fans have never lost their love of the sport. Brazil remains the cradle of MMA.

Barboza is formidable, and is 8-0 in the sport; he’s stopped six opponents with strikes and submitted another; he is coming off a fantastic fight of the night win over Anthony Njokuani at UFC 128; he is hotly tipped to perhaps join some of his countrymen and fellow UFC 134 main carders – Anderson Silva, “Shogun” Rua and “Minotauro” Nogueira – as a future UFC title holder.

But Pearson believes two-months of training with elite level UFC fighters including bantamweight king Dominic Cruz will be the difference in this fight. Pearson is 4-1 in the UFC, and although he won’t speak of it as to not look to be making excuses, a freak knee injury during his fight with Cole Miller a year ago probably cost him his UFC unbeaten record.

Pearson is focused on this weekend’s fight, though, correctly believing this is a career-changer for him. He said: “A win here puts me on the map. I’ve had a setback but a win over Barboza in Rio will be noticed by a lot of people.

“I knew I needed to base my camp in the States, and I’ve been training with guys like Dominick, Brandon Vera and Phil Davis day in, day out and really come on. I needed to improve my game and I want to become a better fighter than what I already was, so I’ve been out at MMA Alliance training with the best.”

“The standard is right up there at the top and it’s bringing my game on so much. Everyone back home in England – my family, friends, even my Rough House teammates – said that if I want to evolve and become a world champion in the sport, I have to go out here and train with the best. There was nothing but positive vibes coming from people back home, telling me I was doing the right thing coming out here. I had sorta become a big fish in a little pond training in England, where out here, I’m just a little fish in a very big pond.”

Pearson knows he’s up against a formidable striker. He said: “Barboza does a lot of things I like to do, he’s a great puncher and he mixes his punches and kicks very well. But I am not scared of him at all. I am going to put it on him from the very first second of the fight and pressure him. He likes to kick from a distance, he’s not going to do that to me. Not happening.

“I think it’s going to be a real war and I know he’ll be fired up fighting in front of all his countrymen. I thought at UFC 105 in Manchester (November 2009) and having fans willing you to do win does help. But it also adds pressure on you and I think when he doesn’t have it his own way he’ll not know what to do.

“I’m expecting a total war, but that’s the way I like it.”