Athletes
Mario Pinto | Lessons Learned
Undefeated Heavyweight Talks Debut Takeaways, Seeking Contentment In Rio On Saturday
“Listen —you’re f***ing waiting too much!” were the first words Mario Pinto heard as he walked back to his corner following the first round of his UFC career. His fight with Austen Lane was the final preliminary card bout of the March 1st event at the UFC APEX, and over the course of the first five minutes, the Dana White’s Contender Series grad looked somewhat overwhelmed and a whole lotta hesitant, resulting in the former NFL defensive lineman touching him up a little bit.
In his corner, Pinto’s head coach, Stuart Austin, continued with his messaging.
“Slow your breathing down. When you wait outside of range, he can build up and swing at you, yeah? I know you’re stressed. I know it’s your debut. I know it’s all too much.”
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He let a beat pass.
“It’s just a fight.”
From there, he gave specific technical instructions, including for Pinto to look to use his jab to set up the two, and just 39 seconds into the second round, his charged reached out with a left to find the range and swung an overhand right that found Lane’s chin and ended the fight.
“I definitely needed it, for sure,” Pinto said on Wednesday, reflecting on Austin’s words from his debut just a few days prior to making his sophomore appearance opposite Jhonata Diniz on Saturday night at Farmasi Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. “I knew it before, but then you’re in there and you’re getting hit and your heart rate is going up, your adrenaline kicks in and you forget —you get into that shell of yourself and you’re like, ‘It’s not just a fight — this guy is trying to kill me, everyone’s watching, UFC is here.’
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“I felt like every move I made was like ‘I can’t make a mistake,’ when really, you can; you can make mistakes. You can throw, miss some shots, take some chances, so I just needed that reminder.”
There is this notion around the sport that you learn more from your losses than you do your victories, but the truth of the matter is that real students of the game find lessons in every result, from every foray into the UFC cage; there may be a greater number of things to work on coming off a setback simply because more things went wrong, but triumphs can most definitely be valuable teachers too.
Mario Pinto Fight Week Interview | UFC Rio
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Mario Pinto Fight Week Interview | UFC Rio
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That was the case for Pinto back in March, as he came away with a walk-off knockout win to maintain his unblemished record as a professional, but had plenty to reflect on and address as he readied to cross the threshold into the Octagon for the second time on Saturday night.
“I’ve been coasting!” he said with a smile when asked what he’s been doing for six months between dispatching Lane and sharing the cage with Diniz later this week. “I’ve been getting better, man; healing, soul-searching, and waiting for them to send me a name. Just developing, more mentally as well as my overall game.
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“Now I know what it’s actually like to fight in the UFC,” added the thoughtful and honest heavyweight. “I want to say I have two UFC fights, but I know the Contender Series is not technically a UFC fight, but it’s good to have done both and gone through real adversity in my debut under the UFC lights; that was real important for me.
“It was horrendous; I can’t say I enjoyed it, but it was partly my fault because I let him do it,” he laughed when asked about getting clipped by the hulking Floridian. “I let him throw those bombs at me, and I should have just thrown a bomb back because when I did, he stopped throwing them. It was good to experience.”
There is a sincerity and honesty to the way Pinto speaks about his experiences and what he was feeling that is uncommon amongst fighters, almost as if he’s repeatedly saying the quiet parts out loud.
Though he’s self-deprecating when he says he’s somewhat responsible for getting tagged by Lane because he wasn’t proactive enough with his offense, the 27-year-old Portuguese heavyweight is also willing to be a little vulnerable — to acknowledge the whispers that ran through his head as he trekked towards the Octagon for the first time and the mental push-pull that takes place many times over.
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“I had that for a second, but I was able to deal with it, even when I wasn’t at my best,” he said of the self-doubt that crept into his head in those rocky first-round moments, prompting him to question whether he was ready to compete at this level.
“You’re always gonna do that — it’s natural; it’s just your brain trying to protect itself,” Pinto continued. “But you owe it to yourself because ‘I’ve done all these weeks, all these months of training — years of training leading up to this moment; I put myself here.’ You owe it to yourself to just go out there, no matter how you’re feeling; you’ve just got to deal with it. You’ve got to make that walk, and sometimes you’ve just got to lie to yourself because your mind plays tricks on you.”
Mario Pinto Knocks Out Austen Lane | UFC Fight Night: Kape vs Almabayev
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Mario Pinto Knocks Out Austen Lane | UFC Fight Night: Kape vs Almabayev
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Those tricks are what prompted him to spend the last six months being more intentional with his training, making sure that every activity was designed with a purpose and geared towards getting him to a place where he believes in his techniques and the weapons he brings to the Octagon completely and without pause.
“And then it’s just about taking a risk, man,” he said. “It’s just a fight at the end of the day.”
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He smiled and snickered at the callback to his coaches' messaging in the corner before the conversation shifted to this weekend in Rio.
Ahead of his debut, Pinto was preaching patience, explaining that he valued gaining more experience and taking a slower approach to climbing the ranks above anything else, and Saturday’s fight with Diniz feels like a quality pairing for his sophomore appearance.
“I was excited,” Pinto said of getting booked to face the Brazilian kickboxer, who was in the graduating class a year before him on the Contender Series and has amassed a 3-1 mark inside the Octagon thus far, similarly opening with a second-round stoppage win over Lane and most recently earning a unanimous decision win over short-notice newcomer Alvin Hines at UFC 317. “I feel like it’s a great matchup; I think the matchmakers know what they’re doing.
“I think it’s a great fight.”
Having admitted that his debut experience got on top of him a little bit before Austin’s corner speech and instructions helped him dial in and do what he knows how to do, I asked Pinto what it’s like being a kid from Lisbon that lives in London and is chasing his dreams to be stationed in Rio de Janeiro, poised to make his second journey into the UFC cage this weekend?
“It’s real, man,” he said with a smile, his eyes growing wider, acknowledging the scope of everything going on around him and happening for him in the past year. “I’m just enjoying it as it goes. I’m trying to be more present, and I’m enjoying every moment.”
And how’s that going so far?
“I’ve got to touch the walls every so often to make sure that it’s real.”
Certain that he’s not living in The Matrix or stuck in someone’s dream like Inception, Pinto is aiming to roll into the Octagon this weekend and dominate; hopeful that a finish will come, but content to stay in his lane, trust his techniques, and allow things to happen organically.
If things play out that way, he’ll move to 2-0 in the UFC with a pair of stoppages, a perfect 11-0 mark as a professional, and a residence on the doorstep of the Top 15 heading into his sophomore campaign.
How would that make him feel?
“I’ll be content for now,” he said with a sly grin. “Just content.”
UFC Fight Night: Oliveira vs Gamrot took place live from Farmasi Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on October 11, 2025. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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