Martial arts crew at Bope gathered on promotion day. Publicity photo.
For it being the venue for this Thursday night’s installment of Shooto Brazil, “O Globo” newspaper dropped in on Brazil’s elite police task force Bope’s headquarters to speak with two police officers called on to face fighter’s imported from Argentina for the André Pederneiras-promoted event.
One of those officers is André Felix, a 36-year-old who has spent the last ten years on the special task force. As the Thai boxing instructor at the Bope, he trained hard for his impending MMA debut and could even pursue a career in it, if all goes well.
“Getting in the ring to do MMA is the extreme of a fighter’s life. And the battles police officers go through daily put us in extreme situations. MMA gives us control. Often the police use firearms unnecessarily because they don’t know martial arts or because they can’t control their adrenaline, do to the inability to control certain situations,” says Félix in the article by Carlos Eduardo Mansur.
“The rookie fighters from Bope are impressive in how cool-headed they are, they get hit and don’t blink,” says Pederneiras in praise.
Shooto at Bope headquarters will only be attended by officials, but it should be broadcast via pay-per-view.
