Sityodtong Heavyweight Standout Juliano “Banana” Coutinho (7-2) Returns to Action at WSOF 31

c/o World Series of Fighting

Juliano “Banana” Coutinho (7-2) returns to the cage on Friday, June 17th, 2016 for WSOF 31: Ivanov vs. Copeland at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut.

After beginning his professional mixed martial arts career with a first-round TKO loss to Pat Bennett (4-3) at CFX 4: Battle Under The Stars in August 2009, the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Coutinho took nearly three full years before his next fight.

In March 2012, Coutinho compiled a string of six consecutive victories, including:

• a first-round Rear-Naked Choke submission win over Jason “The Angry Man” Dolloff (6-18) at CFX 19: Shamrock Rumble
• winning the vacant CFX Heavyweight title by defeating Randy “The Wolf” Smith (14-15) via first-round TKO at CFX 22: Winter Blast in February 2013
• a first-round Rear-Naked Choke submission win over John Orr (6-7) at Cage Titans FC: Cage Titans 17 in January 2014

In November 2015, Coutinho – representing Gracie Elite Team America – was awarded third place in the Male Black Belt / Master 2, Ultra Heavy division at the World Jiu-Jitsu No-Gi IBJJF Championship in Long Beach, California.

In April 2015, the Redonda, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil native suffered his second professional loss in the form of a first-round TKO defeat to 2008 Freestyle Wrestling Olympian Steve “Bear” Mocco (5-1) at WSOF 20: Branch vs. McElligot.

In March 2016, the heavily-decorated BJJ practitioner Coutinho rebounded from his second loss when he earned a three-round Split Decision victory over Chaz “White Death” Morgan (9-2) at CES 33: Soukhamthath vs. Norby.

In his second fight of 2016, the 6’1″, 265-pound Coutinho faces the equally-massive Justin “Big Pretty” Willis (3-1), who is making his World Series of Fighting debut and currently riding a three-fight win streak after going 1-1 in his amateur career (including a victory over Steve “The Hammer” Dickey at Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Noons 2 in October 2010).

After finishing his fight camp at famed Sityodtong in Somerville, Massachusetts, the thirty-seven year old Coutinho took the time to speak about his past, self-confidence, his teammates and WSOF 31: Ivanov vs. Copeland.

WSOF 31: Ivanov vs. Copeland

Prelims live at 5:45PM ET/2:45PM PT on WSOF.com and Main Card live on NBCSN at 9:00PM ET/6:00PM PT

ON SITYODTONG

I’ve been teaching at jiu-jitsu down there at Sityodtong for six years. I’ve been training with Kru Mark (DellaGrotte) and all the guys over there, trying to sharpen up my Muay Thai. And that was the best thing to me: there’s killers in that gym – in and out. You go in there: there’s a bunch of people in every single division that you can possibly think.

So I go there because we have a good group of guys – there’s at least four Heavyweights that go toe-to-toe; we try to take each other’s head off.

I think it’s the best combo to get your game up there. I think the move that I made since my first fight – which was a loss – I kind of got to know them and start training with them while teaching up there.

I think it was the best decision that I ever made.

ON PERSISTENCE AFTER BEGINNING 0-1

My first fight that was a loss – I didn’t know what I was getting into. That was a tough fight for me; I was just trying to prove to people that I could do it, and I wasn’t doing it for the right reasons; eventually I came to lose.

After that, I took some time to realize if that’s what I was going to do. And then I decided to do MMA; I stayed a little bit away from jiu-jitsu competition, as well. I didn’t want to stay away too much from the martial arts, so I stuck with the MMA. And especially I started to meet the guys that I had around me: guys from Sityodtong, guys from the Daniel Gracie team.

I put my head into it right after that fight. I went to Sityodtong, started learning more – the stand-up aspect of it – because the ground game I pretty much had it. I still have it.

I think the biggest reason that I’m staying in MMA is because when I first made the transition for United States, I had to come over here. So I stayed for a few years just working; wasn’t training. I lost a lot of really good jiu-jitsu competitions, and I stayed behind those guys. I stayed behind them and I was trying to catch up and I started doing MMA. And MMA was good because it was something that I found and then it really helped me to keep on doing this sport.

Because otherwise, I was working too much. I was concentrating on other things – making money – and then I was getting too far away from martial arts. So I stuck with MMA so I could keep pursuing the martial arts career.

ON TRANSITION FROM BRAZILIAN JIU JITSU TO MMA

I competed in jiu-jitsu mostly when I was down in Brazil when I was a Blue Belt. When I first came here, I was competing here and there because of work-wise. I think when I made the transition to MMA, it was because it was more challenging; I wanted to do something more extreme.

Jiu-jitsu is like: you know you’re going to a competition and you know you’re going to get somebody to fight. At the beginning, MMA for me was more like I had a fight scheduled and all of a sudden somebody pulled out; somebody got hurt. Something always happened.

But I kept doing it, and the right fights came in along the way; I never choose or pick any fights. It was one of the things that I loved about MMA was the challenges. It’s not that in jiu-jitsu I couldn’t find my challenge. I honestly couldn’t train at the time to keep competing in jiu-jitsu. I was still the Pan-Ams Champion in jiu-jitsu in 2008, but after there it started dying out.  I was like, “I’m going to make this transition. I’m going to go to MMA.” And that’s when I decided to do it – to move on.

ON PRIDE OF BRAZIL AND GRACIE FAMILY

I started with Daniel Gracie; Daniel is my instructor since Day One. I never switched flags – I always stuck with him. Very loyal. That’s how I learned the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: to be a very loyal soldier.

And that’s why every time I step in the cage, I carry the flag.

I’m trying to spread whatever the Gracie’s… they started this style. When the Gracie’s started fighting and I started watching it on TV – 1992 – I was like, “I want to do that!” And then I met Daniel, and Daniel started showing a bunch of beautiful things involved, a lot of good people. And that got my attention.

So every time I step in the cage or on the mats with the Gracie name behind, I’m very prideful. I try to do my best so I do not embarrass anybody. But you know how it goes: any fight, anything can happen. I try to do my best every time I step in there and carry the flag.

ON LIFE IMPACT OF MARTIAL ARTS

The big impact that martial arts made in my life was changing my personality. I was always a person that everybody would make fun of; friends would always pick on me and things like that. So I decided to move onto martial arts for the first reason – to get in better shape.

I started hitting the age of sixteen, seventeen: see all my buddies going out with girls; I was kind of chubby and didn’t have much going on. I tried to get on doing some exercises and I decided to do jiu-jitsu. But along the way – it was not even four months – that I was loving this thing. My mother, my father: they were like, “What’s going on? You just have your head for this!”

For what I think changed: it changed my personality; the way I act with people.

Before, I used to be concerned about what people used to think about me and things like that. Today, I know that I walk with my chest up, more prideful but very humble. Because I know my capability of if someone is trying to take advantage of me. I know what I’m capable of.

So that gives me that confidence of going everywhere, talking to everybody. Especially being an instructor: you get to know a lot of people. And then at some point, you start understanding personalities. You start figuring people out and different aspects of it. Because we’re dealing with a bunch of different people from different places – doctors, police officers, high school kids. You get to know those people, and one-by-one you know how to describe them.

c/o World Series of Fighting

ON WORLD SERIES OF FIGHTING 31 (06/17/16)

The first time I fought for WSOF, my mind wasn’t in it. I lost my first fight in there. I flipped the page. For the last two months throughout the camp, I know what I’m capable of,  I know what I’m going to do in there. I’m not going to be hesitating on anything, trying to think about the victory.

I’m just going to go in there and perform. And people are going to see a different fighter this time.

I don’t care: I can go five rounds right now; I feel really good. My conditioning is really good, the training was perfect. I’m going in there to perform. I want to make it exciting, but I can tell you right now I want to do it jiu-jitsu style. I want to bring it down to the ground, and that’s how I want to finish.

c/o World Series of Fighting

THANK YOU

I just want to thank all my coaches: Mark DellaGrotte, Tyson Chartier, “Loco Lobo”, Daniel Gracie. Those are my main coaches. And all the teammates: Christian Morecraft, Brendan Battles, Greg Rebello. Those are the guys that’ve always been there for me, sparring or training jiu-jitsu. Everybody along the road that tries to push me every day.

Also my sponsors: Brazilian Grill, Starbuck Construction and Painting and Burrito Loco. I got those guys always supporting me and helping me out for every single camp.

Special thanks to World Series of Fighting for select photography