Spencer Fisher trainswith Carlos Escorrega. Photo: Personal archive.
At his seat and about to take off on his flight from the United States to Brazil, Coach Carlos “Escorrega” Lemos’s last words to the press while still on American soil were with GRACIEMAG.com, with whom he discussed the man sitting next to him, Spencer Fisher’s impending battle with Brazil’s Thiago Tavares at UFC Rio.
“He’s and great shape and will put in a great performance, you can count on it,” said the 2002 Jiu-Jitsu world champion who is also our GMA at Gracie Barra Countryside.
The flight attendant chimed in. It was time to turn off the phone, the plane was about to take off. Before that, though, “Escorrega” addressed the training Fisher has been doing to try and win in his opponent’s hometown.
Is Spencer coming with you to Brazil?
Yes, we’re going to finish up training at Gracie Barra.
What are his main weapons going into this fight?
He’s a great striker, the best I’ve ever seen in the lighter weight groups, and his defensive wrestling is really good, too. It’s really hard to take him down. His only weakness is on the ground, but we’ve been working on it for some time now.
How did your coaching him come about?
He showed up through a friend. I had three weeks to coach him for his last fight (loss to Ross Pearson at UFC 127), against a guy from the same school, a student of Bráulio Estima. We did some good work. I wasn’t in his corner, but he had a good fight and did a good job on the ground. For real, he landed hard shots the whole time but they didn’t give him the win. Fisher held an exchange with my academy, he’s got students who are wicked wrestlers. The training sessions were burly. Matt Wiman, who knocked out Thiago Tavares, is in the photos from the session [below], for example.
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