Follow the leader

Hacran Dias started fighting at the age of 18.

“I always tried to follow the path of Marlon, never went to the other side and always wanted to have the opportunity to train with Nova União,” says Dias, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt.

At first, Dias had to juggle his training with odd jobs.

“Sometimes, I wouldn’t eat lunch so that I could leave earlier and get to training in the afternoon -- I was sure of what I wanted for my life,” says Dias (11-0-1), who made his Japanese debut against Takafumi Ito in the Pancrase promotion on March 26.

Sandro’s other standout pupil, Dantas, is already internationally recognized. Born in Santo Amaro, Dantas started training jiu-jitsu when he was 13. Thanks to his innate talent for fighting, he was training MMA with Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro and the entire top team of Nova União by age 18.

That year, Dantas won his first fight against Luta Livre black belt William “Parrudinho” Porfirio and then defeated two other black belts. Only 19, Dantas is ranked No. 1 in Shooto Brazil and has even tasted victory in Japan’s Shooto organization.

“Today I live 100 percent for MMA,” says Dantas, who idolizes Wanderlei Silva. “Unfortunately, I’ve only fought two events this year; I would like our country to have more events like in the United States and Japan. I want to fight, and when I stop, I want to teach jiu-jitsu and MMA.”

Milk from the Ring

While many fighters divide their time between work and the training academy, Julian “Jabá” Soares supports his two children, Julian, 4, and Milena, 9, solely through his MMA earnings. It wasn’t always that way for the Barbosa-trained black belt.

A resident in the Babilônia favela in Copacabana, Jabá previously balanced his training at RFT with a job delivering newspapers.

“I woke up at midnight every day and worked up until 7 a.m. delivering newspapers; then I went straight to my cardio class at RFT, trained and went back home to take care of my children,” says Soares. “I just slept a little, from 7 p.m. until midnight.”

This strenuous routine, repeated Monday through Saturday, only increased Soares’ competitive determination. In fact, one day he took his children to one of his fights in the Rio das Pedras slum when he had no one else to care for them.

“Knowing that my children were there watching me increased my appetite to win,” says Jabá. “I came in the ring to kill or to die.”

Soares knocked out his opponent and then embraced his crying children in the center of the ring.

With the same calmness he exhibits in competition, Soares faced the war with drug dealers who brought terror to his community in June 2007.

“From 7 p.m. on, there were rifle shots all during the night, but the walls of my living room are very thick. We slept in the living room, and we stayed quiet until the noise ended,” he says.

When asked which fighter he most admires, Jabá named UFC veteran Rousimar “Toquinho” Palhares without hesitation.

“Not because of the belts won (Palhares won the Fury Fighting Championship’s middleweight title in 2007), but for his simplicity and the obstacles that he has overcome,” Soares says. “He is an example for us all. I’m sure that he will be champion.”

Soares, who has won eight fights between 170 and 176 pounds, will soon make his debut at 154.

Like Soares, Brazilian Top Team black belt William Porfirio also has two children for which to care.

“I work vigilantly for my tips as a taxi driver, because I can’t get the milk for the children with just MMA,” says Parrudinho, who lives in the favelas of dos Macacos, an area north of Rio de Janeiro.

The violence in Porfirio’s favela took the life of the teacher who’d introduced him to fighting.

“I started with him at 16 years old,” he says.