Ferreira's coach backs 'unpredictable' Hulk to neutralise Aliskerov at UFC Baku

Brunno ‘Hulk’ Ferreira enters Saturday’s middleweight bout against Ikram Aliskerov at UFC Baku in Azerbaijan with his coaching team firmly convinced he has the weapons to win, after a rescheduled matchup that has been more than a year in the making.

Ferreira and coach Andre ‘Dida’ touched down in Baku on Thursday to allow a full acclimatisation to the local time zone ahead of the card. The fight was originally scheduled for UFC 318 last July, but Aliskerov withdrew through injury. Ferreira stayed active by submitting replacement opponent Jackson McKey in the first round.

“‘Hulk’ is more unpredictable and also has a good judo and jiu-jitsu game,” Dida said. “He also has KO power. So he has all the tools to surprise and neutralize the Russian. Ikram fights the same way since his Brave tenure.”

Dida’s credentials for analysing high-level matchups are well established — he previously trained Bruno Silva for his bout with Alex Pereira, and offered a candid breakdown of Pereira’s recent heavyweight loss to Ciryl Gane at UFC White House.

“Poatan took a lot of punches,” Dida said. “He was counting a lot on his range advantage at middleweight and light heavyweight. I predicted that at heavyweight, where he lost his reach advantage, fighting a guy like Gane with long range that moves like a welterweight would give him problems. I cheered for him, but unfortunately my prediction came true.”

Beyond UFC Baku, Dida is also preparing Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua for a boxing rules contest against Glover Teixeira at Spaten Fight Night 3 in August. The veteran coach described Rua as unusually motivated by the single-discipline format after a career spent in MMA.

“Yesterday he called me to say how happy he is that he has to train for only one discipline for this fight,” Dida said. “After all, the promotion couldn’t have chosen a better main event, because Glover and ‘Shogun’ are both very aggressive fighters always looking for the KO. There is no way this fight will not be exciting.”