Marcos Oliveira: A friendly giant with big MMA plans

When Abu Dhabi-based MMA Heavyweight champion Marcos ‘Santa Cruz’ Oliveira steps into the octagon for a throwdown in the UAE, he fights for the capital, “as one way of giving back all that they have given to me “, he says.

But that doesn’t mean he’s chosen to forget where he came from. In fact, the Rio de Janeiro native keeps close ties with home at all times through a combat school he helped launch in his childhood neighbourhood of Santa Cruz.

It’s part of a project that’s keeping the area’s youth off the streets and out of trouble, and instead engaged in healthy sporting activity in an attempt to unlock their true potential. Kara Martin sat down with the friendly giant to learn more.

What started this project in Brazil?
Santa Cruz is the last neighbourhood in Rio, it’s far away from everything so there are no real opportunities for the kids there and they end up either joining gangs or their parents send them to work at a really young age to make money for the family.

So I brought coaches to Santa Cruz to teach judo, jiu jitsu, wrestling, as well as boxing, and now the kids can work towards scholarships and making the national teams. My idea is that even if the kids don’t make the national teams, they have a knowledge of all these styles and can then pursue MMA.

Does it have anything to do with your upbringing there as a child too?
Yes and no. I was introduced to combat sports in the first place through my father who is a police marshall in Brazil. At the police academy there they train recruits in judo. My father signed me up too, like most of his friends’ sons.

At first I didn’t like it… but from the age of nine I started entering competitions and in primary school I got a scholarship. I don’t think my father ever planned or thought that I would become a champion in the sport, I think he just wanted me to continue on to be a policeman like him but I am glad he encouraged me to play judo because it kept me away from the streets where I saw a lot of my friends getting into trouble, into the wrong crowds…

When one of my really good friends got killed, it really opened my eyes and made me realise I was lucky. I lost more than 30 friends. There’s only two ways over there – you’re with the police or you’re against them, there’s so much corruption and so few opportunities.

And how did being involved in the sport shape you as a person, and how will it help shape these kids?
The benefits of picking up sport, I can use myself as an example. Sports can change your life and give you so many other opportunities. I come from a small, poor neighbourhood and I’ve already been to 38 countries, travelling only because of sport (for competitions).

This helped me to develop as a person as I met different types of people, learned about different types of cultures, saw the way other people lived…I gained respect for people. I think sports are the best way to develop better human beings in general. If I were president, I would invest heavily in sports.

The school’s been running for about two years now – how is it being received?
There are now 200-300 kids under the age of 13 learning there. To have been involved in bringing all these guys together, that was my dream, part of creating a new generation of kids in my neighbourhood.

My nephew, Marcos Paulo, was one of the students enrolled in the programme, and was the first one to compete outside the country. He was placed 2nd in his category at this year’s Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu Jitsu Championships (where Marcos also took 3rd and his wife 1st in the finals of their respective weight classes). And another ex-student of mine is on the Olympic wrestling team in Brazil!

The last time I went to check out the school in Brazil just recently we had a ceremony to show the parents and families what the kids had achieved and all that, and everybody was so emotional – kids crying, families crying, thankful for the opportunity to get them into better schools, and that their kids are safe and away from the streets.

Meanwhile, over here I understand you were recruited to do sort of a similar thing with the Abu Dhabi Education Council, introducing jiu jitsu to kids in schools. It seems to have become a huge success with tens of thousands of kids now taking part...
Yes, it was my dream to achieve this… but in my home country. The difference is there is that financial backing and support here, they believed in my vision and let me do whatever I wanted, and I then am able to help the schools succeed. Meanwhile in Brazil, they’re of course now all focused on the Olympic Games, but within that the focus is not on the people, it’s on the business and of making money.

Yes, my project is an insignificant part of it all, it’s so small, but even when my wife and I were on the Brazilian Olympic wrestling team we didn’t have any support. In fact, all the sports besides football, the government is not doing enough for us. They have the money but it keeps getting cut through corruption and we’re the last people they think about, the athletes.

Do you think that level of support will improve closer to, or after, the Olympics?
I believe next year they’re going to throw a lot of money at the athletes, try to make champions out of them in two years. But it’s not going to work, it’ll be too late. In 2007 for the Pan American Games, they spent billions of dollars and now already they have to rebuild the things that they did in 2007… so much corruption.

I think Rio 2016 will be an amazing event – and I plan to be there to see it – but as a result for us personally it’s going to be shame. Just my opinion.

So, what do you think the chances of the UAE national wrestling and judo teams are of getting to Rio 2016? Is financial backing enough for them to make it?
They have some great guys who can do well, and some great coaches, and I hope they make it, but in my opinion… how can I put this... In Brazil, because of the lack of opportunities, those who have found the sport take full advantage of it. I put all my efforts into this opportunity I got. Over here, they have so many opportunities so I think judo and wrestling here is treated more like a hobby, taken seriously but maybe not seriously enough.

There is much more they could be doing to develop, but they need to give up everything else and become fully professional.

And you yourself still fight well and show no signs of slowing down at 35; you just dominated at the Armed Forces Officers Club Ramadan Festival and next you’ll tackle the new Abu Dhabi Combat Championship meant to be taking place in China in October (held under the patronage of Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, whose office Oliveira currently works for). Any chance you might return pro?
I did MMA professionally for seven years in America before coming here and managed to make enough money to survive, but here it’s impossible, they don’t respect the sport enough and it’s all about putting on a show for promoters to make money. So I just fight now because I love it. I want to fight and still believe I can do it, but it won’t happen here, the UAE needs time to develop this and I hope they can.

I already beat three guys from the UFC and got invited on the reality show because of it but it was the same time as my offer to come to Abu Dhabi. I chose Abu Dhabi – a salary every month, the security… Now, I’m just focusing on developing my Ready Fight Gear brand of fighting clothing and on my school and the next generation of fighters.

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