Money, fame or a better life all around, every man and woman has their reasons that brought them to mixed martial arts. For Rafael Xavier, a 31-year-old prospect out of Brazil that could be one win away from a title shot in Eastern Europe, it was a way to unleash anger.
Xavier (11-6), a light heavyweight talent who faces Pavol Langer at Oktagon 39 in Munich, Germany, on Feb. 11, first trained martial arts after his father Marcos died in prison. Xavier was 8 years old at the time and never had the courage to dig and investigate what happened to his father, a man who quit a promising career in soccer after getting involved with drugs and crime in their hometown of Sao Vicente, Brazil.
“I never got involved with drugs because I went to prison to visit my father and saw what it does to you,” Xavier said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “I didn’t need someone to tell me to stop doing [drugs] it’s too bad.” Xavier said in an interview with MMA Fighting.
“I heard from a lot of people that I wouldn’t even get to 16. My mom had to leave home to work, I was just a kid in the streets, and it’s funny that now those people ask me for pictures. I don’t recall them telling me this. You should never say something like that to a kid.”
Xavier made several trips to the city jail alongside his mother Rosana to visit Marcos before he was transferred to a bigger prison, “a small fish in a shark tank, full of dangerous people.”
“That’s where he died,” Xavier said. I was angry at God, and mad at everyone when he died. Angry at God, angry at everybody.”
Xavier had never trained martial arts before “but I knew how to fight,” he said. Rosana offered to enroll him in a class of jiu jitsu. His fury only grew. He liked it, “but it wasn’t what I wanted because there were no fights, no blood.” His cousin trained Muay Thai and that suited him better, though he still had no money to pay for either one.
“I never picked fights [in streets], but whenever I was in one, I finished it,” Xavier said. “I couldn’t afford to pay [for classes], but I could fight. After trying to go pro, many people quit training, and no shinpads or whatever. But I loved the adrenaline .”
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” Here I was able to unleash my anger without any consequences. All my anger was about life. I didn’t understand why all that was happening to me. I was just a kid. It shouldn’t be that way, but I was just a kid. Thank God that I discovered in sports a way .”
to manage my anger
Xavier won his MMA debut by winning in 2014, via TKO, just 50 from his home. Booked to fight in Panama, Xavier met his future wife Alina Marie in a hotel lobby and didn’t think twice when she invited him to follow her back to Germany sometime later. Living in Europe for six years now, and 4-0 under the Oktagon banner, Xavier feels ready to fly higher in the sport.
“I haven’t gotten where I want yet, but I feel blessed for everything I’ve accomplished so far,” said Xavier, fighting back tears. “It was hard, but that’s how God wanted. I’ve met wonderful people along the way, my wife, friends and coaches.”
A win over Langer would cement his position as No. 1 contender and set up a title bout with light heavyweight champion Karlos Vemola in 2023, he said. Vemola is the 24 winner of 26 bouts after leaving UFC a decade back, but Xavier hopes to finish his record.
“Vemola only has one game and everybody knows what that is, he tries to grab you and get you tired,” Xavier said. He’ll fall asleep if I touch him first.
Being crowned champion of Europe will bring him more money and a chance to be promoted in the near future. But, it is more important than any other thing to be able to help his mom in Brazil.
“All the money in the world wouldn’t be enough to give back what she has done to me when she had nothing,” Xavier said, crying. “Even if I was the world’s richest man. Even though she had no money, she gave everything to me and my sisters. She was… she was f ****** amazing. It makes me feel good to do something for her. I’m not rich, I still haven’t gotten where I want, but you will never be alone.”
Source: https://www.mmafighting.com/2023/2/10/23527781/there-are-things-you-never-forget-rafael-xavier-mma-unleash-anger-father-death-prison?rand=96749
