As Matheus Nicolau put it following his recent victory, he’s an “unemployed fighter” after completing his contract with the UFC, but he expects that to change very soon.
Nicolau won his sixth consecutive win, fourth in a row at the UFC. He was able to do so with a TKO of Matt Schnell during Saturday’s UFC Orlando second round. In his second stint with the promotion, Nicolau was able to bet on himself, and he feels his performance against Schnell will produce a satisfying return.
“There’s no reason [no to give me a new contract],” Nicolau said on The MMA Hour. They signed me back and gave me great fights. I can grow against [all ranked guys]..”
“UFC is treating me well. I’ve been given opportunities to learn and they’ve offered me deals.
Prior to his win over Schnell, Nicolau picked up decision wins in the octagon over Manel Kape, Tim Elliott, and David Dvorak after returning to the promotion in 2021. The 29-year-old competed for the UFC between 2015 and 2018 after being a contestant on season four of The Ultimate Fighter Brazil, winning his first three appearances before losing via first-round knockout to Dustin Ortiz at UFC on FOX 30.
After two wins outside of the UFC, Nicolau was given a second chance with the company, and following three straight victories in this run, Nicolau says entering the final fight on his deal without a new one in place was a UFC call.
“It was not my decision,” Nicolau said. The UFC thought it was the right decision [to not re-sign me before the fight], when we talk about [business],. I also had another fight under my contract. They gave me this fight against Matt Schnell, which I’m thankful for the opportunity because I liked the fight. Schnell was open to me challenging him, and he didn’t mind fighting. Schnell was more than a bulls***, he was one of the most tough guys in the division over the years.
” I saw this fight as an opportunity. His game was better than mine, so I went to the fight. I just went to the fight, took the situation as an opportunity.”
There were a couple of similarities heading into this fight for Nicolau as there was for the July 2018 loss against Ortiz — one of which was competing on the fourth fight of a contract following three straight wins in hopes of sticking around with the promotion, while also having Keith Peterson as the assigned referee.
“I was really, really focused on just thinking about the fight,” Nicolau explained. But [I was thinking about it]. “But, of course [I was thinking about it].” The last time that I attended the UFC I had a streak of three wins going into my fourth fight [which I lost],. But it was exactly the same.
“The [ref] who was [refereeing] the fight [on Saturday] was the same from my loss against Dustin Ortiz. I just knew that in the locker room. When I saw it, I was like, ‘Damn, man. I was able to see it again. There’s nothing to do, I did a really good job, we did really good work to get there. Everything was challenging to get there, and we did good.”
Source: https://www.mmafighting.com/2022/12/15/23495081/matheus-nicolau-confident-hell-get-new-contract-after-ufc-orlando-win?rand=96749
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