I'm watching right now a show on Brazilian TV about him. It's pretty awesome.
Key points:
- He was wretched poor, his house was barely a hut and often there was no food to eat. He left school at the second grade, age bout 8, to work on the fields full time, plowing, seeding and reaping. He also worked as a kid as a fencer builder, carrying and delivering stuff and selling pastries to other farmes. He said that as a kid he worked all the time, but still was a very happy time, but at the time he didn't realized that.
- His partners say he's crazy strong, skilled and crafty and all his subs hurt like hell. They say there's no grappler like him.
- Murilo confirms that he repeatedly instructs him to not let go off subs until the referee stops him, due to his old bout with Lindland and the phantom tap.
- He says that during fights he just lock in the subs and doesn't pull them, otherwise he would really hurt his opps. Said that on the Drwal situation he just placed the sub and applied minimal strengh, waiting for the referee. His partners says that he's so good and storng that only by applying the sub he already hurts a lot.
- The early stoppage against Dan Miller was because the Drwal fight was still haunting him and he didn't wanted to do be accused again.
- He's very innocent and naive, and can be easily fooled.
- He's very religious and watches the mass every day.
- At his first UFC fight he had to go through make-up to tape the presses. He was mortified of what his townsfolk would say, and wouldn't allow it. A whole intervention had to be staged so he would agree.
- Once he drank kitchen soap thinking it was a protein drink. (details: after training, while his training partners were taking showers, he would sneak on the locker room to drink their protein drinks that they left unattended. One time they were all showering when they heard a ruckus and went to check it: someone had left a detergent bottle on the counter with the protein drinks and Rousimar gulped it down, realized what it was and run over outside to a tree, slamming the door in the process, trying to throw out);
- His aunt (which only has two teeth, btw) said he played a lot and was mischiveous as a kid. He liked to play pretend with cars, but since he didn't had a toy car, he pretended with sticks (that almost got my eyes watery);
- He told, with a gleefully smile like a child who is revealing a secret, that when he was asked to sell pastries for his aunt, he would eat the crumbs ("as bordinhas do pastel", not sure how I could translate that);
- He was always available to work, his mother seemed very proud of that;
- He and his mother were always looking for jobs they could to together, so they could spend time close to each other. He says that his mother would never let him give up of any task or job, "no matter how big the field was";
- His manager said he was terrible shy at the beggining, so they had a tough time having him do interviews. Says he's still shy, but learned how to cope with it better;
- After the Miller fight, Dana White scolded him in the locker room;
- Since the Miller fight he's seeing a sports psychologist. The counseller helps him to get worked up and calmed down at will;
- Bustamante said that he's terrible anxious and worried;
- He and his partners play at each other all the time, other much like small children;
- When he gets home, after training, he trains more at his own, including lifting a sandbag that I think he made it himself;
- His wife is kinda good looking.
I think I wrote everything, lol.
