Manager Jorge Guimaraes Discusses Strategies of His 5 Fighters in Major Title Fights

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Prominent Brazilian manager Jorge Guimaraes has a lot of irons in the fire, ranging from those in the Ultimate Fighting Championship to Bellator MMA.

With five fighters competing for belts in the UFC and Bellator in the next three months, “Joinha” Guimaraes has quite a full dance card. His first of those will spring into action on Saturday, when Patricio Freire looks to defend his 145-pound title against Adam Borics in the main event of Bellator 286. Guimaraes spoke to Sherdog about this fight and several others that are coming down the line for his athletes.

“Patricio made a perfect camp for this fight. No injuries at all,” “Joinha” explained. “Besides being a great striker, Borics also improved his wrestling and ground skills [at] Sanford MMA, but [the experience of] ‘Pitbull’ will be the turning point for him to return to Brazil with his belt.”

After Freire defends the strap, Guimaraes will need to help prepare Alex Pereira for his battle with Israel Adesanya in New York. “Poatan” will fight for the UFC middleweight crown on Nov. 12 at UFC 281.

“I was talking to him last week, what an ironic destiny. The title fight will be in [Madison Square Garden], the same place where he made his UFC debut one year ago. [It] will be the stage for the most important fight of his life. ‘Poatan’ is sharper than ever, I just don’t believe this fight going five rounds.”

For this particular camp, Guimaraes is helping facilitate Pereira’s camp with reinforcements. Dutch striker Yousri Belgaroui will be arriving in October to help the Brazilian ahead of his fight with Adesanya. Belgaroui, a former top-ranked middleweight in kickboxing, has faced Pereira three times in the ring, winning once. In addition, the former Glory kickboxing title challenger has fought Adesanya on multiple occasions.

“This guy is striking powerhouse,” Guimaraes said. “He fought three times with Pereira, and in 2016, he fought twice with Adesanya. He will be really valuable in this camp.”

Following this event, Guimaraes will travel from New York to Chicago. Just one week later, Patricky Freire will be putting his belt when the lightweight Champion will put his crown on the line against unbeaten Usman Nurmagomedov at Bellator 288.

“There were a lot of people saying bulls--- about his brother [handing] the title shot to him. Patricky wants to shut those mouths, and he is training really hard to do so. Unlike his cousin, Usman Nurmagomedov is more of a striker than grappler. The kid is definitely tough, but I have no doubt, he never faced a strong puncher with such knockout power as Patricky,” the noted manager who also had all-time great Anderson Silva in his stable in the past.

A mere two weeks after that event, “Joinha” will travel to Connecticut for Bellator 289 on Dec. 9. In that event, former champ Juliana Velasquez will rematch Liz Carmouche for the flyweight throne.

“She is training harder than ever to prove the mistake Mike Beltran committed in the first fight,” Guimaraes stated. “That was such an absurd [call].”

The roughly three-month whirlwind trip of Guimaraes, one he refers to as his “belt journey,” does not have a formal date of its conclusion yet. While former beltholder Glover Teixeira is expected to square off with champ Jiri Prochazka for the second time at UFC 282, the pairing is still not official.

“That one we didn’t get the 100% confirmation of UFC yet, we are still trying to bring that to UFC Rio in January, but Jiri is avoiding it. Glover is really anxious to have the date and stage decided, once he already started his camp,” Guimaraes concluded.