Boxing Five UFC belts in January? UFC commentator sees potential for historic year ahead for Brazil

[James]

Charles Oliveira and Glover Teixeira losing UFC title bouts in 2022 were huge blows to Brazil in MMA, but UFC Fight Pass Brazil commentator Andre Azevedo sees the glass as half full.

“Crisis? Quite the opposite,” Azevedo said on this week’s episode of MMA Fighting’s Trocação Franca. “We’re in a great moment. If you divide belts by country, it’s all very spread. United States only has one, Aljamain Sterling’s. You have Kyrgyzstan, Russia.

“We’re in a good moment and we have promising Brazilians in every weight class.”

Brazil currently holds titles in four weight classes, with Deiveson Figueiredo at flyweight, Alex Pereira at middleweight, and Amanda Nunes reigning in two divisions. If Figueiredo retains against Brandon Moreno and Glover Teixeira regains the light heavyweight belt versus Jamahal Hill on the same night on Jan. 21 at UFC 283, Brazil will have five of the 12 UFC titles by the end of the month.

“Accidents will happen, no one will win all the time,” he said, “but the [expectation] is that we end 2023 with a lot of people well-ranked in every division in the UFC.”

Azevedo can see many Brazilians earning title shots in 2023 and adding more gold to the country in Brazil, including Oliveira, Taila Santos, and Ketlen Vieira.

“There’s a great group at strawweight too,” Azevedo said. “There’s Jessica Andrade, Amanda Lemos, Marina Rodriguez, Amanda Ribas, Mackenzie Dern, Luana Pinheiro, Polyana Viana [and Virna Jandiroba]. You have eight Brazilians in this division.

“But Weili Zhang is tough, man. I even joked she’s Shevchenk-ing. Her last two fights were like, who’s stopping her? This woman is a tank.”