Mario Pinto points to one mantra: “Perfection is the enemy of progress.” For the British-Portuguese heavyweight, these words were of particular importance in his UFC debut, serving as both a reminder and a crucial lesson for his impending sophomore outing.
Against Austen Lane in March, Pinto pursued a pretty, poised exhibition of his skills until, suddenly, things turned ugly. Dropped out of nowhere in the first round, Pinto was given a transformative pep talk from his coach Stuart Austin before round two. Forty seconds later, it was Pinto flattening Lane to stay unbeaten.
“I was trying to be too perfect, it put me in a shell,” Pinto tells The Independent, sat outside a cafe near the Canary Wharf Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gym, where he teaches MMA – alongside coaching roles at Fightzone London and Fight City Gym. “Before I threw an elbow, I was 6/6 on punches, but I wasn’t throwing that many because I was like: ‘Every one needs to be perfect.’
“The talk from Stu… It wasn’t even his voice, it was just the eye contact. But also what he whispered to me: ‘You’re being a p***y, bro. We fight all the time.’ They panned the camera just before he said it!”
In between rounds, Austin had acknowledged Pinto’s nerves, which the 27-year-old says were tied to external factors – rather than any doubt in his own ability. “The internal is so important, and all these variables outside have no control over what I’m doing,” Pinto explains now. “They just seem like they have control – the crowd, the TV, the brand.
“On the Contender Series, I fought in front of Dana [White, UFC president], but I didn’t care – you’re still kind of a nobody,” Pinto continues, referencing the TV show where he secured a UFC contract with a knockout win. “Then last time, on fight week, people made a big deal out of my UFC debut. They were saying: ‘You’re the favourite, I’m gonna bet on you!’
“Some of those factors make you think: ‘I can’t afford to make a mistake.’ But what’s the difference to doing that in the gym? In the second round, I was just like: ‘You know what? F*** this. If I get banged out, people will forget in a week. So, I just went after him. I felt free, finally. I took the chains off my back.”
Pinto also admits: “I watched tape too much tape on Lane. There’s got to be a balance. I overcomplicated it, was trying to find his rhythms, patterns. ‘Why does he shift his leg this way? Why does he lean that way?’ It’s overstimulation, especially if you’re an overthinker.”
That brings Pinto onto his next fight: Saturday’s match-up with Jhonata Diniz, on the latter’s home soil in Brazil. The Rio de Janeiro card will be headlined by fan favourite and home fighter Charles Oliveira, taking on Mateusz Gamrot.
“With Jhonata, I’ve broken him down and I understand his style, but I don’t want to tailor my game to that,” Pinto says. “Do what you do, and deal with what he does when it comes.”
Pinto is not only trying to learn from what he deems excessive tape study; he is also trying to learn tune out the afore-mentioned external elements.
“I’m not letting that stuff bother me, even fighting in Brazil,” he says. “You’ve just got to relish it, then roll the dice. But also, I’m not trying to trick my brain into saying ‘it’s not a big thing’, because then I’ll know I’m playing games. This is just a platform to show what I’ve worked for, and what I want to become.”
And what can Pinto become? ‘Champion’ is the aim for most, but for the time being, reigning title-holder Tom Aspinall is an occasional training partner of Pinto, not yet an opponent.
“I was like, ‘Now I know why you’re the champ, it makes sense,’” Pinto says of recent sessions at Aspinall’s gym. “Yeah, he’s good. Also, I know he could have upped the level a bit, so it was very good to move around with him and pick his brain. I even asked: ‘Did you see things that you feel I need to work on?’
“He told me it’s just certain details, whereas lots of people don’t want to tell you; they just say, ‘Oh no, you’re great, don’t worry.’ But he said: ‘You’re doing stuff that a lot of heavyweights don’t do – [you’re] like a new type of heavyweight.’ It was good hearing that and understanding that maybe I’m not as far away as I think I am.
“The best thing, which Andy [Aspinall, Tom’s father and coach] made clear, was: ‘There’s no egos here.’ Like, if you win a position: where other people are competitive or a bit salty, they’re so chill. I like what they’ve got going on.”
Aspinall is seeking a successful first title defence as undisputed champion, while Pinto is still seeking a spot in the top 15, yet there are similarities between them. “I want to be like Tom, Islam Makhachev, Alexander Volkanovski, Jon Jones,” Pinto says: “I’ve always tried to be formless.
“If you’re a ‘master of none’, that can be a problem, but I want to be an MMA fighter, not a striker or grappler specifically, otherwise one day you fight a striker and you have to out-grapple them – and vice versa.”
Perhaps Pinto’s sessions with Aspinall will aid his new pursuit: progress over perfection.
