When Allan Nascimento last competed in the UFC octagon, the landscape of the promotion looked considerably different.
Back in January 2023, the time of “Puro Osso’s” submission victory over Carlos Hernandez, prominent figures like Amanda Nunes were active, Aljamain Sterling and Francis Ngannou held titles, and neither Alex Pereira nor Jon Jones had transitioned to their new weight categories.
Nascimento is finally set to end the longest hiatus of his UFC tenure this Saturday, facing Jafel Filho at UFC Vegas 107. Over the past 868 days, he navigated significant challenges.
“Crazy, huh? It’s very complicated, really,” Nascimento told MMA Fighting. “[MMA] is a sport that demands a ton of physical effort. I really had some bumps on the road, some injuries and health issues in some of the fights that were booked, but thank God I’m fine now.”
After securing his second consecutive UFC victory, Nascimento was forced to withdraw from bouts against Tim Elliott and Sumudaerji. Subsequent to recuperating from knee surgery, he again pulled out of a scheduled August fight with Filho during fight week. The Chute Boxe representative was slated for a March return, but his opponent, Asu Almabayev, was moved to the main event to face Manel Kape.
“MMA is very unpredictable because you don’t work in seasons so it’s hard to periodize things,” Nascimento said. “You have to stay active at all times, always waiting for a date and a fight to be booked, so you’re training for 365 days. But it’s part of the sport. It’s an aggressive competition with sometimes three or four fights a year with 300 days of training. So the odds of injuries and serious stuff happening are a bit higher.”
Although he hasn`t fought in nearly 900 days, the Brazilian flyweight spent much of this period training and learning, promising a strong showing upon his return. To help overcome his past health issues, Nascimento revealed he began practicing yoga.
“I learned how to better dose the training,” Nascimento stated. “I’m out for two and a half years, but I made sure to deal not only with the fight and training, but also start doing yoga. For example. It has helped me a lot. We don’t have to focus only on the fighting aspect of training, but us fighters we have to take care of our minds to be able to follow the plan in there. And yoga has helped me a lot. I think it was a huge asset for me as of late.”
Regarding their martial arts styles, both Filho and Nascimento are acknowledged submission experts, hailing from prestigious Brazilian MMA gyms, Nova União and Chute Boxe, respectively. Nascimento anticipates a strategic “chess match” when they meet at the UFC APEX on Saturday.
“It’s hard to say ‘my [jiu-jitsu] is better’ but I feel better prepared, with my jiu-jitsu better adjusted,” Nascimento remarked. “I’m a black belt under Master Barbosa so it needs no further explanation on how much this man has taught me and made my jiu-jitsu go from gi competition to MMA, for example. We know it’s different. I was able to show that most of the fights in my career. I think it’s going to be a chess match of maybe who makes less mistakes than who fights better, you know. We both know our qualities, our strong points, so I think that’s going down to the details. Jafel is a complete fighter. We know he trades on the feet, he likes that, and has a very polished jiu-jitsu. We both have two areas we can explore, so we’ll see who explores that better on the fight.”
