Rodolfo Bellato and Paul Craig were minutes away from fighting each other at UFC Vegas 106 this past May when the broadcast announced the light heavyweight bout was called off due to a medical issue.
As it turns out, Bellato had herpes, so the Nevada Athletic Commission decided to pull the plug on the match. The UFC opted to re-book Craig and Bellato for June 14 in Atlanta, and the Brazilian fighter admits he was heartbroken to see a fight cancelled at the eleventh hour.
“We never expect that something like this would happen to us so it was something that surprised me a lot,” Bellato told MMA Fighting. “I had the gloves on, already warmed up. There was one fight left before ours, and then the commission doctor saw my lips—and it was something that showed up on the day of the fight. On the faceoffs, the weigh-ins, there was nothing.”
Bellato said he woke up Saturday morning and felt his lips were a bit “itchy”, but nothing out of the ordinary. It got worse after a morning workout, though, and then the herpes revealed itself.
“I think the commission was extremely correct,” Bellato said. “We really have to look out for our opponent, the athletes, because it really is contagious. They really made the right call. We don’t understand it at the time. I cried a lot at the time. ‘Man, it’s not possible.’ But the correct decision was made. They did the right thing to protect my opponent—and also myself, sometimes a bacteria could get in from that. It’s hard to understand, but now, with a cooler head, looking at the other side, I think the commission was totally right.”
Bellato said he was informed of the new date shortly after going back to the hotel, so he had to worry about not gaining too much weight to make 205 pounds just a month later. He usually bulks all the way up to 235 pounds after a fight, but managed to keep his weight low and step on the scale at a shade under 206 pounds on Friday. Craig also made weight to make the bout official for UFC Atlanta.
In the end, Bellato faced off with Craig a couple of times—once in May, and then again in June—and didn’t feel threatened by Craig’s infamously intense staredowns. The Brazilian talented said in May he would stop Craig inside the distance, and doubled down for Saturday.
“He definitely wants to take me to the ground, that’s his best weapon,” Bellato said. “Like I said in that other interview, there are no fools in the UFC. He’s not a white belt on the feet, of course not. He’s had a number of fights [in the UFC] and plenty of knockouts too. I won’t underestimate his striking, but we know his best weapon is the ground game so he will obviously try to impose that to win the fight.
“My UFC fights didn’t have much of ground action so he definitely wants to try that. And I’ll show him that I’m a black belt just like he is, and that MMA is a complete game. I can knock him out as much as I can submit him. Where the fight plays out, I feel very confident.”
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