Felipe Lima: Surviving the Scandinavian winter to live the UFC dream

Felipe Lima made the most of a late-notice call to be in the UFC in June, relinquishing the Oktagon bantamweight title to walk through Muhammad Naimov in a featherweight clash at UFC Saudi Arabia and pocket an extra $50,000 in bonus.

With an actual camp now, “Jungle Boy” had proper time to prepare for his octagon appearance and fully realize the dream of being in the UFC going into his clash with Miles Johns at Saturday night’s UFC Tampa.

Born in Coari and living in Manaus since his teenage years, the Brazilian prospect devoted his life to jiu-jitsu before shifting his focus to MMA in 2015. The young talent was choked out in his first trip to a cage, but hasn’t tasted defeat ever since.

With a record of 7-1, and a champion in his home state, Lima decided it was time to chase belts overseas. He applied for a visa to enter the United States. However, as expected, it was denied. And when a friend commented about a fellow fighter had taken a different approach and moved to Sweden, Lima decided to take the shot.

“I didn’t like it here at first,” Lima said of life in Sweden. “I stayed for two weeks and cried all the time because I couldn’t speak the language, it was dark, and I had no friends. I went back to Brazil and three weeks later I said, ‘I can’t stay in Brazil anymore,’ and went back to Sweden to build my life here.”

Life in Helsingborg was somewhat depressing, especially for a Manaus man leaving the Amazon rainforest heat to the cold Scandinavian winter.

“What shocked me the most was the weather, but also the darkness,” Lima said. “Summer here is beautiful, but it’s different when you don’t speak the language. You can’t communicate to other people, and that was the toughest part of that season.”

Lima beat Gustavo Oliveira in his first fight in Europe and then topped Farbod Iran Nezhad at Brave CF’s show in Stockholm, and that’s when his career took a turn. Lima met Allstars Training Center’s coaches that week, plus UFC star Alexander Gustafsson, and was invited to be part of the team.

“I had sparks in the eyes looking at them because I’m a big fan of [Allstars jiu-jitsu coach Alan Nascimento] ‘Finfou’, and he’s like a brother to me now,” Lima said. “The relationship I’ve built with these guys now, ‘Finfou’ and Gustafsson… They’re legends to me, and to be able to share the mats with them was an incredible experience that has helped me so much not only in my career, but as a person as well.”

Lima said “confidence comes form hard work,” staying in the gym 12 hours a day for years to become the athlete he is today, and it will show when he enters the cage Saturday to battle Johns.

Kansas’ “Chapo” Johns enters the cage confident after going unbeaten his past four under the UFC banner, capped off by wins over Cody Gibson and Douglas Silva de Andrade, but Lima sees him “stiff like a bodybuilder.”

“He’s very strong, his fighting style is more like low tempo. That’s the different between us,” Lima said. “I start the fight at high pace, and he only trusts that right overhand. My game will be to move around, hit and get out, and be prepared for everything. He likes to go for takedowns when he’s under pressure, so let’s see how he reacts to my speed and strikes.”

“I’m happy the UFC has given me this opportunity,” he continued. “Even though it’s not a long camp, four weeks out, I’m ready. This guy has eight UFC fights, he’s 6-2 in the UFC, so it’s a good name to beat.”