We often see fighters looks back at their early ties with martial arts as a secret for success. For UFC featherweight Sheymon Moraes, that’s what almost moved him away from the sport.
Moraes has been fighting MMA professionally since 2012, compiling an 11-3 record with five knockouts and at one point challenging for World Series of Fighting bantamweight gold. Problem is, the Niteroi native was thrown into martial arts as a competition so early that he’d had enough of doing what he loved the most.
“I was a great judoka, but one day I said, ‘I don’t want to do this any more’ and never put on a gi again,” said Moraes, who faces Andre Fili at Saturday night’s UFC Sacramento show.