A NEW CHAPTER BEGINS FOR VITOR PETRINO

The 27-year-old Brazilian is not a small man; he stands six-foot-three and appeared as if he were chiseled out of marble when he stepped on the scale and competed in the light heavyweight division.

Training and competing are difficult enough to get through unscathed, but when you’re also taxing your body as often as he was during his first two years on the roster to make a weight that is increasingly challenging to make, it’s understandable that your body will start to push back and say, “No mas.”

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Given the way Petrino likes to prepare, the decision to move up was the only realistic option, and has created a different kind of animal heading into his divisional debut against Lane on Saturday night.

“My preparation for this camp compared to the previous ones in the light heavyweight category was much more intense,” began the Cristiano Marcello protege, who will immediately be one of the youngest competitors in the heavyweight ranks when he steps into the Octagon this weekend. “I was able to eat better, get better quality sleep and thus give my all in each training session, beating my personal records.

“Injuries will always happen, but when you eat well, sleep well and rest without worrying about your weight, it was a huge difference,” Petrino added. “I have never felt so good in a camp, focusing completely on the fight.”

In addition to his joining fellow Nashville combatants and countrymen Tallison Teixeira and Valter Walker as part of the youth movement in the UFC heavyweight division, the start of this next chapter makes Petrino an interesting case study to follow over the next handful of years.

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Long gone are the days when competitors would spend eight, 10, 12 fights on the regional circuit, working out the kinks in their games, developing a true sense of who they are inside the cage and, if necessary, which division they are best suited to compete in. Everything has been expedited, with more athletes reaching the highest levels of the sport with limited experience, still early in their development as fighters and needing time to not only grow into their abilities, but in many instances, their more mature, adult forms.

As such, there is a case to be made that fighters reaching the UFC on that accelerated timeline need to be afforded more time to grow, more opportunity to stumble, fall, and learn to pick themselves back up and make adjustments than their more experienced, more established contemporaries; that we need to look at their early years in the Octagon as the equivalent of a football player logging live reps in college before transitioning to the NFL.

Chase Hooper has been an massive example of this over the last couple years since he ventured up to lightweight, and now that he’s two years in and shifting weight classes, it feels possible that Petrino will follow suit. 

“What I learned most in the first two years on the roster being very active was to respect my body more and know when to slow down,” offered the new heavyweight, clearly having taken in a lesson that can only be gleaned from experience. “This sport excites us, but there are times when the body needs rest.

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“With each appearance I feel more comfortable, more at home,” continued Petrino, reflecting on his start while looking ahead to the future. “Don't get me wrong: it's a big responsibility to be in the biggest Octagon in the world, but I feel like that's my place and I was born to be there.”

That sense of understanding is another part of the growth and development that only comes with experience, and can only be obtained by making that walk and grappling with the magnitude of competing for the biggest organization in the world. Getting to that point is one of the things that helps unlock the best version of themselves.

And Petrino believes he’s unlocking that version.

“This helps a lot in terms of preparation,” he said of feeling more comfortable and understanding the responsibility and pressure that comes with fighting at the highest level. “ (Once you learn this), you understand that your biggest opponent is yourself, the fight is always internal.

“You understand that and no one can stop you.”

This weekend, that means Lane, the former NFL defensive lineman who is a physical specimen and tremendous athlete, though he’s struggled since reaching the UFC roster.

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“Lane is a great athlete, he puts up very tough fights, but he has his flaws,” Petrino said of the man he’ll face this weekend, who has gone 1-3 with one no contest through his first five trips into the Octagon. “I will work on them, but, above all, I will play my game.

“I see the fight unfolding on the feet — two opponents who are strikers — but at some point, when there are more weapons in MMA, the fight will be decided. I am confident in my game.”

Confident in his preparations and eventual triumph, Petrino offered one more reason to view this weekend’s fresh start as a cause for optimism about his future and to possibly look at him as Subject X in a case study about the growth and development of athletes at this level.

“My focus is on Lane and making a great debut in this new category,” he said when asked how quickly he sees himself rising up the heavyweight ranks.

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That’s the kind of response that only comes once you’ve looked too far in the future once or twice and been shown the error of your ways.

Petrino has clearly learned, and it’s going to be exciting to see how this next chapter unfolds.