Ricardo Almeida talks to Graciemag.com:
When you fight you have to not only be physically prepared, but mentally prepared to deal with this type of change of tides when it happens. Sometimes you are doing well in a fight, a knee gets through in the thai clinch, you land and the guy starts hitting you and a bunch of things happen. At that moment [the armbar], I was pressing him up against the fencing, so he used the fencing to spin and pull me into the armbar. That armbar was fully sunk. I felt I wouldn’t be able to get out and kind of waited for my arm to pop and get loose so I could try and get out. But he ended up adjusting the grip on my wrist and it loosened a bit, so I managed to pull out my elbow and spin over. I think the fight was a good one. I kept my cool the whole time, knowing what I had to do to win one round at a time.
I have to say, I saw where Almeida's elbow was positioned and thought it was all over. However, being the accomplished grappler that Almeida is, he managed to stay calm and get through the tough spot. I guess the legend of Gracie's refusing to tap continues with Almeida, who got his blackbelt from Renzo Gracie. Almeida will now go down to the welterweight division and try to make an impact against a division full of wrestlers and grapplers. How do you like his chances?
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