This appears in philstar.com
Bibiano Fernandes: Family
matters
by rick olivares
He is punctual to say the least. This is a world champion
hear taking the time out of his busy schedule to call long distance from
Seattle to Manila and he’s apologizing to call at 7am in the morning.
“I am sorry about yesterday, my friend,” Bibiano Fernandes
starts off. We were supposed to chat via Facebook the previous day but there
was a mix up in schedules. “I hope now it is okay.”
Of course, it is. This is a Mixed Martial Arts champion right
here!
To know Bibiano Fernandes is to know that his family takes
precedence before anything else. It’s been over four months since he fought
inside the cage and Fernandes has been busy teaching and coaching MMA in Canada
while raising his three children, Elijah, Gabriel, and Lucas. “I like doing the
daddy things,” he says so proudly that you could almost hear his heart beating
with pride. “My children are the best thing I have ever done and that includes
my fighting career.”
As a youngster in Manaus, Brazil, Bibiano was left to fend for
himself when his mother passed away. He did a variety of odd jobs just to
survive before he found salvation and his way out of poverty in learning
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. And now, he refuses to see his children go down that same
path that he did. “A lot of people fight for greatness,” he explains. “Yes, I
want that too. But I fight for my children’s future. That’s what it is all
about. I see that man in the ring in front of me and I think, ‘he’s trying to
stop me from providing for my kids.’ That’s different, man. That’s different.
But you have to be smart. You cannot win all the time. You cannot fight all the
time. So you look for a good business to get into. That’s where you invest.”
All that time while he was foraging for food back in Brazil?
Fernandes never forgot life’s hard lessons and choices, and he carries that
with him wherever he goes.
After his fight with Gustavo Falciroli in One FC: Pride of a
Nation, Fernandes took on Yoshiro Maeda in Dream 18 last December in Saitama,
Japan.
Maeda is slightly older than Fernandes but has more than doubled
the Brazilian’s fight record of 13-3 with a slate of 30-12-2. “Japanese
fighters are very technical in nature; very skillful. You have to be careful
and be superior to them in that aspect.”
Fernandes quickly pounced on the Japanese fighter and forced him
to submit with 1:46 left after planting a triangle choke on him.
He trains in Seattle because it’s near his home in Vancouver,
British Columbia. “It rains a lot,” he says but not as a complaint. “You have
to adapt of situations in hot weather or in cold. Everything. I have to block
out everything and focus. No excuses.”
Fernandes is now focusing on his return bout in Manila, in One
FC: Rise to Power against another Japanese fighter in Shooto featherweight
Koetsu Okazaki (7-2).
“It will be good to return to Manila,” cheerily says the
Brazilian. “Living now in Canada, it’s different. Manila reminds me of Brazil.
And I love how the people accepted me and cheered for me. It will be good to
fight in front of Filipinos again.”
He isn’t worried about the ring rust after all, he trains
continuously. “I do not take Okazaki lightly. He’s a good stand up fighter.
Good skills and good striking power. But he is standing between me and my
family.”
Oh oh. Fernandes is seeing red again. For sure, One FC: Rise to
Power is going to see some heavy fireworks.
ONE Fighting Championship returns to Manila on Friday, 31
May, with the explosive One FC: Rise to Power at the Mall of Asia Arena
featuring the highly anticipated first title defense of hometown hero ONE FC
Featherweight World Champion Honorio “The Rock” Banario. Banario will put it
all on the line when he takes on Japanese submission specialist Koji Oishi.
Plus, pound-for-pound king Bibiano “The Flash” Fernandes returns to the famed
ONE FC cage when he squares off against Japanese MMA sensation Koetsu Okazaki
for the ONE FC Bantamweight Interim Title. All the action will take place at
the 20,000-seater SM Mall of Asia Arena in what is expected to be the greatest
fight card ever compiled in ONE FC history. After selling out arenas throughout
Asia it is finally time for ONE FC to return to the Philippines.
____________
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