UFC 46: Supernatural Preview

Carlos "The Ronin" Newton vs. Renato "Charuto" Verissimo

CARLOS NEWTON: Virgin Islands native grappler, 3-time Canadian Jiu-Jitsu champion, Canadian Pankration champion, Dragonball Z Jiu-Jitsu fighter, training at the Warrior Martial Arts Centre in Newmarket, Ontario with Terry Riggs, Everton McEwan and the Warrior MMA Fight Team, with a record of 12-8 in MMA, making his 7th (3-3) appearance in the UFC

Abbreviated Fight History: Newton started training in martial arts at the age of 4, began competing as amateur at 14 in karate, judo and jiu-jitsu tournaments and turned professional as a MMA fighter at 18. His stepfather, also a martial artist, was an early instructor and stoked the fires of a young fighter who is now considered one of the very best the division has to offer. Though born in the Virgin Islands, Carlos moved to Canada at the age of 10 to attend school and considers himself a true representative of Canada in the ring. He began fighting MMA in 1996 at the short-lived Extreme Fighting promotion. There Carlos fought a giant Jean Riviere and looked promising in defeat. Newton ventured to Japan and began fighting for the Shooto Organization. Carlos made his octagon debut in the UFC 17 Lightweight Tournament where he made it to the finals against Dan Henderson and lost a very close decision. His debut at Pride 3 followed just one month later against rising Japanese superstar Kazushi Sakuraba. It was Newton's second consecutive loss and marked the only time he has lost two bouts in a row in his entire MMA career. Carlos is one of the few fighters who jumps back and forth from Pride to the UFC (and other promotions) successfully with little or no consequences. Below are some of Newton's more significant contests:

Newton/Eric Paulson: Carlos faced then-champion Erik Paulson in the year-end Japan Vale Tudo show, defeating the Shooto champion via armbar in less than a minute. Paulson, seemingly caught off guard by Newton's speed and fluidity, was forced to tap with his foot on Newton's head to avoid the arm break.

Newton/Dan Henderson: Newton came out striking and tagged Henderson early. Dan dropped down and went for a takedown but Carlos did a beautiful midair flip to land on his butt with Henderson in a front headlock. Henderson gets out and Newton goes to guard. Dan continues to strike well on the mat while Carlos complains about not having his mouthpiece. Newton gets his wish and the bout is stopped about 3 minutes in he is not only given his mouthpiece but they are restarted in the standing position. Upon the restart, Newton executes an impressive takedown and lands in side position. Back on the feet, Henderson's striking improves and he presses the action against Newton. Dan controls position and delivers knees from the standing position until they go back to guard. Henderson stays in control on top until he decides to go back to the feet. Once standing, Carlos gains the advantage with leg kicks as Henderson shows signs of ware. A strike sends Henderson to the floor but he recovers to execute a single leg takedown and eventually gets side mount. The regulation bout ends with Dan in Carlos' guard. Carlos enters the OT period looking fresh and firing heavy leg kicks to the body. Both look tired but Carlos lands a hard right hand to Dan's head and presses the attack. Henderson get s a takedown after absorbing a leg kick and stays on top in control in the guard. Henderson takes a split decision for the tournament title.

Newton/Pat Miletich: Newton won his title in dramatic fashion choking out Miletich in the third round and ending Pat's unbeaten Octagon streak of 7-0. He won the title in the final round of a gutsy performance. Pat Miletich was 7-0 and had held the title for 3 years. It was unlikely Newton would've won a decision to take it from him. Prior to the win, Carlos had not been in the UFC for 3 years.

Newton/Landi-jons: Carlos went to Pride to face then Chute Boxe fighter and Vale Tudo legend Jose "Pele" Landi-jons. Each fighter had their areas of strength; "Pele" was devastating on the feet and Carlos controlled the ground. Minutes into the bout, Newton was tagged with a powerful knee that took time to recover from. Rather than finish him off, Landi-jons sat back and admired his work allowing Newton to recover. Once on the ground, Newton regained his composure rolled Landi-jons with an armbar for the victory. Carlos' most recent effort was an impressive submission win over ultra dangerous Chute Boxe fighter Jose "Pele" Landi-jons at Pride 19. This bout was pure excitement with both fighters getting multiple takedowns but Carlos clearly controlling the ground. Newton had Landi-jons in an early armbar but it wasn't sunk and "Pele" escaped looking like he was never in any serious trouble (we know different). The stand up game was all "Pele", landing solid punches and a devastating knee that had Carlos spinning. The Dragonball Z Jiu-Jitsu wizard was in serious trouble but Landi-jons sat back and admired his work rather than capitalizing on a hurt opponent and allowed Newton to recover. Once on the ground, he waited for all of the cobwebs to subside and Newton rolled to an armbar for the win.

Newton/Anderson Silva: Silva chased Newton and Carlos kept him at bay with a jab. Once cornered, Carlos took Anderson down and lands inside Silva's guard. Newton passes guard to sidemount and knees Silva in the head, prompting the Brazilian to try and crowd Carlos with his long body. Newton moves fluidly on top of him, quickly obtains mount and rains down punches. This forces Silva to turn to his side but the armbar isn't there due to the close proximity to the ropes and the momentary hesitation allows Silva to regain guard. Anderson locks Carlos in a tight guard with his long limbs and stifles much of Newton's offense. They grapple and exchange strikes but at the 5 minute mark the action is stale and Silva is given a yellow card for stalling. Once stood up, Silva is intent on doing some damage on the feet and he keeps Newton off balance with strikes to the body. Carlos shoots for a takedown but is met with a flying knee behind the ear. A stunned Newton sits up as Silva seizes the opportunity before him and delivers 4 unanswered right hands before the referee calls a halt to the action.

Newton/Renzo Gracie: Carlos comes out firing but Renzo gets the takedown and side control. They stay grounded with Gracie eventually getting Newton's back and applying a rear naked but Carlos escapes, gets Renzo's back and settles into side control of his own. The pace is slowed and more methodical as they roll from counter to counter. At 5 minutes in, Renzo works on a foot lock and Carlos appears concerned but relatively unphased. It was only when Gracie repositioned and set up for a kneebar that he really got Newton's attention. It looked like it was in deep but Carlos escaped and went to work with strikes to Renzo's face and body from sidemount. After a period of maneuvering on the mat, Carlos punches Renzo in the back of the head. When asked by Newton if he's ok, Gracie actually taps Newton's back three times. It went unnoticed and I don't know what they said on the North American broadcast but to me that could've been trouble. Carlos continues to out-wrestle Renzo and maintain control from the top until the round ends.

They exchange kicks and punches to begin round two and Carlos executes a textbook slam that gets a roar from the crowd and made Japanese Team leader Hidehiko Yoshida take notice. Newton dictates the pace on the ground and even fends off a nice rolling slam from Gracie to maintain control. They grapple but Renzo can't seem to get things moving in his favor as another attempted throw from the standing position is thwarted and reversed. Renzo momentarily decides to exchange on the feet but that doesn't appear to be the answer either. Carlos was fresher, quicker with his hands and landed a nice roundhouse kick to the side of the head. With just over a minute left, Renzo goes for broke with his last effort to apply a front guillotine choke but Carlos escapes controls the action the rest of the way. Somehow it is ruled a split decision in favor of Newton. It had to be a tough bout for both fighters because these two are good friends. They gave us a heck of a lot better effort than Pete Williams/Tsuyoshi Kohsaka "performance" at Ultimate Brazil.

Also worthy of note: Newton has battled Kazushi Sakuraba (loss/submission), Johil de Oliveira (win/decision), Dave Menne (loss/decision), and Matt Hughes (loss/KO-loss/TKO),

Strengths And Weaknesses: On the ground, few people move smoother than Carlos Newton. He looks so comfortable making the transition from technique to technique that at times it looks like something out of a choreographed submission fighting video. That level of sensitivity in movement and superior timing is uncommon. Newton's hands have also come a long way. He had some boxing skills coming into the sport but he seems to have taken the time to refine them and now looks forward to exchanging on the feet. Identifying a weakness, especially at this experience level, is more difficult to determine. You can rule out lack of preparation, poor conditioning or underestimating his opponent as none apply to Newton. Is he guilty of over commitment to technique in battle? Maybe. In 4 of his 6 losses he went out fighting. Whether it was by submission or being put to sleep, Newton is always feverishly working for something and simply stopped. By his own admission, his mind said "shoot" in the final moments with Silva. Carlos shot, Anderson kneed, fight over.

How He Can Beat Verissimo: Through pure exhaustion. Renato doesn't have a lot of experience in MMA and certainly not at this level. The transitions and breakneck speed that Newton is known for may be too much for Verissimo. If Carlos works his magic on the mat and peppers him with strikes, he may have a TKO victory inside of two rounds.

RENATO VERISSIMO: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighter, 1996 Brasileiro Champion (Brazilian National Jiu-Jitsu Champion), placed 2nd in the 1996 World Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Championship, placed 3rd in the 1997 World Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Championship, 1997 Brasileiro Equipes Champion (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Team Competition Championship), placed 2nd in the 1997 Pan-American Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Tournament Championship, 1998 and 1999 Abu Dhabi World Submission Fighting Championships veteran, black belt in jiu-jitsu under Andre Pederneiras, trains with B. J. Penn, John Lewis, Andre Pederneiras and members of the Lewis/Pederneiras Vale Tudo Team and Nova Uniao as well as Egan Inoue and members of Grappling Unlimited, with a record of 4-0-0-1 in MMA, making his 1st appearance in the UFC

Abbreviated Fight History: Verissimo began training in judo at 12 years old and trained the art for 4 years. He during his judo training, he took up water polo and spent 6 years competing in that sport. This is also where he got his "Charuto" nickname which means "cigar" in Portuguese. It was given to him by his water polo coach because there was another boy named Renato and at 6'1 and 145lbs, the instructor felt he was shaped like stogie. Verissimo began training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in 1993. Below are some of Verissimo's more significant contests:

Verissimo/Mike Van Arsdale: This was not MMA and Verissimo was originally supposed to face former Extreme Fighting Middleweight Champion Igor "Houdini" Zinoviev. It was a martial artist vs. wrestler in a submission grappling Abu Dhabi-style event called the International Wrestling Forum: The Contenders with 5x3minute rounds. Verissimo wore a Gi and jumped right to guard to open the first round. In the second, Van Arsdale tried to pass guard and Verissimo worked a choke from the bottom but most of the round was spent jockeying for position. Van Arsdale had a front neck choke in the third but Verissimo went to the mat and they grappled for the rest of the period. In the fourth round, Verissimo again jumped to guard but Van Arsdale gained points by seizing his back. Renato attempted a kneebar but Mike turned out of it to apply a neck crank. Van Arsdale moves to side control and eventually gets the back again to unquestionably claim the round. They finish the fourth with Mike working for a possible keylock. The final round opens with a flop from Renato and shove to the mat by Mike. Van Arsdale looks to pass and does so, stacking Verissimo and avoids the danger of a triangle choke. Mike kept the pressure on and took the decision victory. The best part of the bout, and the whole event to be honest, was the constant bickering between John Perretti and Dan Gable. Both gentleman were proud spokespersons for their given disciplines and made the commentary quite humorous.

Verissimo/Gil Castillo: To the surprise of most everyone in attendance, the highly accomplished jiu-jitsu player opted to stand trade with UFC veteran and Cesar Gracie disciple Gil Castillo. Over the course of the first two rounds Verissimo opened Gil up and had him bleeding profusely throughout. Gil couldn't come out for the third round and he had instantly earned himself a debut in the octagon.

Also worthy of note: Verissimo battled Shannon Ritch (No Contest)

Strengths And Weaknesses: With a lengthy BJJ pedigree it goes without saying Verissimo's strength is his ground game. He's a decorated champion and has legitimate submission ability. However, much like Vitor Belfort, Verissimo has not relied on his grappling to pull out the win and instead has taken to winning battles on the feet with strikes. With 4 wins under his belt and a UFC debut, the secret is out. No one will underestimate his striking prowess in the future. As for a weakness, at this point in his career it comes down to big-time experience. Having beaten Castillo, he's moving in the right direction but to make his octagon debut against the former champion is a huge step.

How He Can Beat Newton: Possibly standing. Gil Castillo has had two title shots in the octagon and showed some ability to fight standing. If Renato chewed him up and spit him out as reported, he may have a shot at catching Newton with a combination of strikes.

MY PICK: Newton. Carlos is coming off likely the three biggest wins in his career with a victory over Renzo Gracie (Miletich and "Pele" Landi-jons being the others). He has to be pumped he realizes yet another title shot could be as little as two bouts away. Verissimo could be something soon but this is as tough as they come for a debut. I feel it will be Newton by decision after the third round.

DOWN THE ROAD:
Newton/Hayato Sakurai: If Newton returns to the Pride Bushido show, this would be a natural match-up.

Newton/Sean Sherk: Can Carlos beat "Matt Hughes lite"? It would be a good battle to determine who deserves another shot at the UFC welterweight crown.

Verissimo/Shonie Carter: Rumors swirl he'll be back in the cage. He had a 5-3 fight record in 2003 with decision losses to Jeremy Jackson and Ronald Jhun.

Verissimo/Luiz Firmino: Somebody get this kid in a major show! He's 7-1 and exciting on the mat or on the feet.