The Ultimate Fighter Interview Series: Vinny Magalhaes

Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 11.25.2008

The Vile One switches sides with Team Mir light heavyweight semi-finalist, Vinny Magalhaes. Vinny finally gets to give his side of the story on the pranks and the near meltdown with UFC Interim Heavyweight World Champion, Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira.

Vinicius Magalhaes is one of the light heavyweight contestants on season 8 of The Ultimate Fighter. Magalhaes fought his way into the house by defeating Lance Evans, the brother of the #1 UFC Light Heavyweight Title contender Rashad Evans (the winner of the second TUF). Vinny was then picked for Team Mir and would get into the semi-finals after beating Jules Bruchez.

Vinny in the past has trained fighters at Team Quest including Dan Henderson and Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou before breaking into MMA himself. Vinny is also a former Brazilian Jujitsu world champion. Currently Vinny has a professional MMA record of 2-2 and is training full-time in Las Vegas as well as helping Frank Mir for his fight against UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 92. A little while back, Vinny took a break from his training to speak with yours truly:

The Vile One: What was your experience like training with Team Mir on the show?

Vinny Magalhaes: It was a great experience. I had great guys with me like -- great training partners like Tom Lawlor and Robert Drysdale, the assistant coach, Frank Mir. All those guys became my friends after the show too, so it was great for me having great people around me for training. The training was a little bit . . . slower than what I was expecting, but having guys like Tom and Frank Mir, who's one of the best coaches, helped out a lot. I had a great time at the house.

TVO: You had a very tense moment with Nogueira on the show. Do you want to set the record straight on what was depicted?

VM: Yeah, a few days ago I even tried to call him and apologize even though that thing wasn't what people are thinking, it wasn't that bad. The thing is that I was being his friend the whole time -- we were being friends the whole time and then someone told him that I was talking trash about him and of course he got mad at me. It wasn't like he got mad, he got more like disappointed, you know? . . . When I was talking to Frank, he was like, "You're better than Nogueira, right?" And I said, "No, not better, we just have a different style, you know?" We were just talking about jiujitsu not like fighting style or anything because I cannot compare myself with Nogueira, there's no way. I'm like a 2-2 fighter, and Nogueira's like one of the best in the world, so it just doesn't make sense.

TVO: I think people overreacted when you said the word, "basic".

VM: Yeah because who ever trains jiujitsu knows like basically the bread and butter, like what works with the basic rules like triangle chokes, arm bars, rear naked chokes. He's not like a real fancy guy that does rubber guard things, you know like a spider guard, or whatever guard you want to name. But the word basic, it's not like I was saying he was bad at jiujitsu, I would never say that to them. And when we were training like the very first day, I told him, "Dude, you've got like a real basic jiujitsu, but it works like perfect."

TVO: You're not saying he's a sub-par jiujitsu specialist. You're just saying he's great at using simple holds effectively to win fights.

VM: That's basic holds, that's what I call it. Basic moves in jiujitsu like when some guy can do like a 100 different moves and like fancy moves, he does basic jiujitsu moves to everybody. It's not like I was trying to say Nogueira was bad, I didn't say that. There's no way. How can I say that to the champ, the guy who beats everybody, and fought the best guys in the world and submit them. It doesn't make sense.

TVO: Were you able to get Arianny Celeste's phone number?

VM: *Laughs* Ah no man. Nah dude.

TVO: Regarding the peeing in the fruit platter (which Vinny among other members of Team Mir participated in a prank against Team Nogueira), come man, don't you think it's a bit much making people eat fruit with your piss or peeing in Efrain Escudero's bed?

VM: Honestly when I got home and watched the show . . . "Oh aren't you the guy on TUF that pissed on Efrain's bed?" No one ever says, "You're the guy that fought Jules," "You're the guy that fought Lance Evans." No one ever remembers you by the fights, people always remember you by like the stupid things. I'm pretty embarrassed when I watch the show now.

TVO: There was also controversy when Nogueira came to the house to speak to Team Mir about the pranks. Many viewers as well as members of Team Nogueira were not showing Nogueira the proper respect. In hindsight do you think you were disrespectful or Nog or should've shown him more respect?

VM: I agree with you, but the way they edited the show, they made it look like no one was paying attention and that wasn't true. When he came into the living room . . . everyone was listening to him, but the way they showed it on TV, it just made us look bad because it's like those guys don't respect Nogueira. And it wasn't that way at all.

TVO: On the show you said people hate you in Brazil, do you want to talk about that at all?

VM: It's because I trained Dan Henderson for his fight against Wanderlei Silva (That was at Pride FC 33: The Second Coming for MMA historians. Buy it, it's the best MMA show of the year, and quite possibly the best Pride show of all time), and I trained Sokoudjou for his fights against Machida, Rogerio Nogueira, and Ricardo Arona. So in Brazil, it's like I'm a Brazilian trainer who goes to America to beat Brazilians up . . . and I'm helping Frank [Mir] out for his fight against a Brazilian guy.

TVO: How'd you get into BJJ and then MMA?

VM: I started jiujitsu like in the end of 1998 with a few of my friends . . . and MMA I started at the end of 2006. It's just like after training jiujitsu, they want to train you in submission wrestling style, and the last step is basically MMA. That's my last step. It's a big step, but now I can get paid, and get on TV and stuff.

TVO: What for you is the hardest part of training?

VM: Sometimes I just don't want to do it, but you have to . . . I train with Forrest Griffin, Mike Whitehead, all the top guys. And I get beat, and then after I just don't want to train because I get so sore, and I just have to train. So the hardest part is like train, and train, and train; over and over again.

TVO: What have you been doing since you left the show?

VM: Just training. When I left the show, I went back to California and found out I didn't have a job anymore. So since then, I've kind of been like a full-time fighter. And I've been teaching sometimes too, like Pro-1 Mixed Martial Arts in California. Now I'm just like training full-time in Vegas and then in California teaching, so . . .

TVO: Well good luck, and we look forward to seeing more of you on the show, and I hope you get Arianny to give you her phone number when you see her.

VM: Yeah, after the show, I started to date a girl, so I can't get Arianny's number anymore.

TVO: Your girlfriend would be OK if you wanted to date both herself and Arianny at the same time, right? I mean she'd be OK with that because it's Arianny.

VM: *laughs* I wish.

TVO: Thanks Vinny, and hope we can see you in the UFC soon.

VM: Alright, thanks a lot, thanks for hearing this.