Felipe Pena has just confirmed that he will be temporarily moving to ATOS to conduct his training camp for the upcoming fourth match between him and Gordon Ryan. There’s a quite a lot at stake for both men in the match, as Pena won their first two meetings in 2016 and 2017 before Ryan was able to submit him in their most recent WNO headline match. If Ryan wins then he pulls their personal record level at 2-2 and if Pena wins then he’s able to put a more definitive end to the rivalry between them. It seems as though Pena is aware of the importance of this match as he’s decided to make a drastic change in order to get the most competitive training with the sparring partners at the highest level that he can:
“Most of the time, I believe I’ll be training at ATOS with Galvao. The main things I’m looking for now is, first, a gym that offers heavy training and high-level fighters to practice with and get me out of my comfort zone. That will push me forward every day to do everything right, to get good sleep, knowing that the next day it will be another challenge. The kind of practice that stays in your mind the whole day, that gives you a new challenge every day.”
It might seem strange that Felipe Pena is moving to ATOS after spending his entire career competing out of Gracie Barra, but he has explained that the team finds themselves in something of a rebuilding phase recently:
“It would be nice to do the camp with Gracie Barra, my team; but they currently don’t have a gym focused on high level competition, with many black belts training together. Lately, Gracie Barra has been developing lots of young athletes – purple and brown belts – and the black belts are split apart. I still represent Gracie Barra, the team is in my heart, but I will do this camp away for a few months.”
Gracie Barra team-members will likely be happy to hear that Felipe Pena isn’t moving to ATOS permanently; and once the bulk of his camp is done, he’ll be finishing off the last few weeks in a GB school anyway:
“I’ll be training with Andre Galvao, who has a lot of experience and I deeply admire him, so I hope to learn a lot from him and everyone else there. After that, I will do a short camp with Draculino, probably in the last weeks prior to the match. It’s in Houston and we are planning to unite some top fighters there to help on the build-up; and to make the last adjustments to my game.”
The full video where Felipe Pena explains that he will be conducting his training camp for the fourth Gordon Ryan match at ATOS was uploaded to his official YouTube channel:
