Mario Pinto points out a mantra: “Perfection is the enemy of progress.” For the British-Portuguese heavyweight, these words were of particular importance in his UFC debut, serving as a reminder and a crucial lesson for his impending sophomore exit.
Against Austen Lane in March, Pinto put on a nice, prepared display of his skills until things suddenly turned ugly. Coming out of nowhere in the first round, Pinto received a life-changing talk from his coach Stuart Austin before the second round. Forty seconds later, it was Pinto Flattening Lane to remain undefeated.
“I was trying to be too perfect, it put me in a shell,” says Pinto The independentsat outside a cafe near the Canary Wharf Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gym, where he teaches MMA, along with training roles at Fightzone London and Fight City Gym. “Before I threw an elbow, I was 6/6 with punches, but I wasn’t throwing as many because I was like, ‘Everyone has to be perfect.’
“Stu’s talk… it wasn’t even his voice, it was just the eye contact. But also what he whispered to me: ‘You’re being apparited, bro. We fight all the time.’ They panned the camera right before he said it!
Between rounds, Austin had acknowledged Pinto’s nerves, which the 27-year-old says were linked to external factors, rather than any doubt in his own ability. “The internal is very important, and all these variables outside have no control over what I’m doing,” Pinto explains now. “It seems like they have control: the crowd, the television, the brand.
“In it contender series, “I fought in front of Dana (White, UFC President), but I didn’t care, you’re still a nobody,” Pinto continues, referencing the television show where he earned a UFC contract with a knockout victory. Then last time, fight week, people made a big deal about my UFC debut. They said: ‘You’re the favorite, I’m going to bet on you!’
“Some of those factors make you think, ‘I can’t afford to make a mistake.'” But what’s the difference in the gym?
Pinto also admits: “I saw a tape with too much tape in the rail. There has to be a balance. I indulged him too much, I was trying to find his rhythms, patterns.” Why does the leg move this way? Why is he leaning that way? “It’s overstimulation, especially if you’re an overthinker.”
That brings Pinto to his next fight: Saturday’s showdown with Jhonata Diniz, in the latter’s homeland of Brazil. The Rio de Janeiro card will be headlined by fan favorite and homegrown wrestler Charles Oliveira, facing Mateusz Gamrot.
“With Jhonata, I’ve broken it and I understand his style, but I don’t want to adapt my game to that,” says Pinto. “Do what you do and deal with what he does when it comes.”
Pinto isn’t just trying to learn from what he considers excessive tape study; You are also trying to learn the external elements mentioned above.
“I’m not letting those things bother me, even fighting in Brazil,” he says. “You just have to savor it, then roll the dice. But also, I’m not trying to trick my brain into saying ‘It’s not a big deal,’ because then I’ll know I’m playing. This is just a platform to show what I’ve worked for and what I want to become.”
And what can Pinto become? ‘Champion’ is the target of most, but at the moment, title holder Tom Aspinall is an occasional training partner of Pinto, who is not yet an opponent.
“I thought, ‘Now I know why you’re the champion, it makes sense,'” Pinto says of recent sessions at Aspinall’s gym. “Yeah, he’s good. Plus, I know he could have raised the bar a little bit, so it was really good to move with him and pick his brain. I even asked, ‘Did you see things that you feel like I need to work on?’
“He told me it’s certain details, whereas a lot of people don’t want to tell you; they just say, ‘Oh no, you’re great, don’t worry.’ But he said, ‘You’re doing things that a lot of heavyweights don’t do, (you’re) like a new kind of heavyweight.'” It was good to hear that and understand that maybe I’m not as far away as I think I am.
“The best thing, that Andy (Aspinall, Tom’s father and coach) made clear, was: ‘There are no egos here.’ Like, if you win a position: where other people are competitive or a little salty, they are so calm.
Aspinall is looking for a successful first title defense as undisputed champion, while Pinto is still looking for a place in the Top 15, but there are similarities between them. “I want to be like Tom, Islam Makhachev, Alexander Volkanovski, Jon Jones,” says Pinto: “I’ve always tried to be shapeless.
“If you are a ‘master of none’, that may be a problem, but I want to be a MMA fighternot a striker or fighter specifically, otherwise one day you fight a striker and you have to overcome them, and vice versa.”
Perhaps Pinto’s sessions with Aspinall will help his new quest: progress over perfection.