Gabriel Miranda was a teenager when he first saw former Pride Fighting Championships heavyweight titleholder Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira survive a hellacious beating to dispatch the monstrous Bob Sapp with an armbar in front of 90,000 fans at Tokyo National Stadium in Japan on Aug. 28, 2002. It led to his transformation from jiu-jitsu player to mixed martial artist and ultimately altered the course of his life.
“When I saw ‘Minotauro’ submit that giant of a man after suffering a piledriver,” Miranda told Sherdog.com, “I decided to join the sport.”
Fast forward two decades later, and the 35-year-old Brazilian featherweight has made it to the highest level of MMA with the Ultimate Fighting Championship.