Carlão Barreto (photo) is a former MMA fighter, referee, coach and commentator. Photo: Repdorução/Facebook
Having worked in practically all areas of MMA, Carlão Barreto knows the sport like few others. The former fighter, coach, referee and commentator saw up close all the changes made in recent years, when the sport stopped being called MMA and started to be seen with more professionalism by society.
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In an exclusive interview to commemorate the seven years of SUPER FIGHTS, Barreto showed an interesting point of view about the changes in the sport recently. For him, the differences between MMA and the old MMA are equivalent to comparing two different sports. “Without a doubt, MMA has seen a huge leap in the last five years. People began to observe MMA as a sport, not just as a fight, as a human fight. There are people who theoretically would not have the profile to enjoy the sport, from different social segments, who talk about MMA. This shows the evolutionary level of the sport in terms of the number of fans. Another important point is the number of portals, of websites that in these seven years have started to want to learn about the sport and report on it. There is also the athletic issue, since fighters today are super athletes. The most romantic era of MMA is behind us. Athletes have a super-regulated training routine, worked on in scientific terms. Without a doubt, MMA has made a huge leap in recent years”, analyzed Barreto.
For the former athlete, the big factor that boosted the popularity of MMA in Brazil was its broadcast on open television, starting in 2011. “The big change happened when Globo embraced the sport. We can't deny it. And this was also seen in the struggle between the Vitor belfort and the Anderson Silva. All of Brazil stopped to watch the fight. Vitor was already known and Anderson was emerging and this confrontation caused a huge commotion. There was the 'cat's leap'”, he pointed out.
A professional sports athlete between 1996 and 2005, Carlão believes that nowadays the path for fighters who decide to make a career in MMA is much more accepted by society. “In my time, if you chose this path to pursue your career, you were marginalized. It was something underground, with open rules. It was a time of little money and a lot of passion. It was much more difficult to be a fighter, since you exposed yourself much more technically and physically. Today, fighters have many more events to fight in, more opportunities. With the internet, you have all the possible and imaginable information about whatever you want. In our time we didn't have that. Nowadays, fighters don’t evolve, they don’t learn because they don’t want to,” he said.
“When it was still free-for-all, there was curiosity. There were more people curious about improving their physical conditioning through better nutrition, but there were no physical educators prepared for the sport. They were people who came from other sports, such as bodybuilding and football, and tried to bring their knowledge to the sport. Physical preparation was not taken as seriously and eating was more intuitive. My generation experienced a moment of discovery of a new sport”, continued the commentator, now 46 years old.
Despite highlighting the evolution of MMA in recent years, Barreto believes that there is still a way to go towards a completely satisfactory level. “Are we at the ideal time? No, there is still a lot to grow. MMA still has a lot of maturity to gain. We need athletes to have better scholarships, we need more investment in sport – not just from the government, but from the brands that benefit from sport. They need to invest in the base, in the training of athletes and training centers”, he commented. “MMA will still evolve a lot, both in terms of the athletes’ psychological aspects and in terms of training. I believe there will be some adjustments to the rules to make the sport more dynamic, so I still see a very productive horizon.”
Even though he considers that improvements are still needed in a series of factors, Carlão points out a specific item that would make a difference. “The base is amateur, amateur MMA is growing. With this, the technical quality of the professionals will be much better, because they will have a competitive background and will be able to correct mistakes along the way. When he goes to the pros, he will be much better technically, physically and psychologically”, he concluded.
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