Fortuna reveals training with Cormier: 'Gives enormous confidence'

Fortuna trained with Cormier at AKA (Photo: Reproduction/Facebook MarcelFortuna)

Little known to the general public, light heavyweight Marcel Fortuna will only have his second fight in the UFC. After debuting with a surprising knockout over Anthony Hamilton, in the top category, the Brazilian returned to his home division and will face the undefeated Jordan Johnson at TUF Finale 25, this Friday (07), in Las Vegas.

And, it seems, he comes well prepared for the fight: part of his preparation was done at AKA, a North American academy that has names like Daniel Cormier, Luke Rockhold e Cain Velazquez. According to 'Mãozinha', as he is known, training with Cormier, current champion of the under-93kg category, made him even more confident for his next challenge.

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“There is a lot of good training at AKA. I trained a lot with Cormier, yes. It gives me enormous confidence to train with the category champion, even more so as a wrestler as my next opponent. Despite this, in the gym he doesn't use takedowns much, preferring to perfect his striking. Of course it ended up putting me down a few times, but it was a very rich training session that made me very confident for this fight. It's important to test yourself in training against a guy who strikes well and has a very rich background in wrestling, because you're unlikely to be surprised at the time of the fight”, revealed Fortuna, in an interview with the website 'Portal do Vale Tudo'.

Asked about his opponent's game, Marcel showed that he did his 'homework' when describing Johnson's main characteristics. However, he guarantees that he is prepared to surpass the American in all areas of the fight.

“My opponent is a wrestler, he likes grappling, but he generally uses it more for his grappling when he is being put down, and generally when he lands on top he works on ground and pound, giving him a hold in the fight, at least that was what which I noticed watching his last fights. I believe this will be the strategy he wants to use in our fight, which is to take down and score. I'm prepared to cancel his game. Regardless of the style, we adapt the game to always surprise the opponent.”