“I watched his last two fights in the UFC,” Ferreira said of Gamrot. “I never thought I was going to fight him and I was thinking, “Holy — this guy is a beast!’ When he submitted Jeremy Stephens, I was like, ‘Oh damn!’
“He’s a good fighter — he throws hard overhands, uppercuts — and he goes over there and just ran over Jeremy Stephens, got the kimura, I thought, ‘Whoa — this guy has really good skills.’
“I think we match up perfectly with each other — good grapplers, really good standup fighters — and I can’t wait,” he added. “I think we’re going to put on a good show, an exciting show, and I expect nothing less than his best.”
View Ferreira’s Athlete Profile
In addition to wanting to end this skid before it gets any worse for himself, Ferreira admitted that he draws a great deal of motivation and from the team he’s surrounded by at Fortis MMA in Dallas, and the bond he has with the team’s head coach, “The General,” Sayif Saud.
“I don’t know if you saw my last post about being in the shark tank, but that inspires me every day,” he said of a recent Instagram post featuring the impressive collection of talented fighters he trains with on a daily basis, with Saud standing in the middle of his charges. “Every day I get there, I feel like I’m just a country boy. I go in there and those guys are all beasts, and to get to train with them motivates me more. Seeing those guys training hardcore the way we do changed me to be a shark, too.
“I feel more thankful to Coach Sayif for being beside me my whole career,” continued Ferreira, who commutes more than four hours from his home in Pharr, Texas to work with the all-star cast of coaches and fighters in Dallas. “Having that mentor always telling me what to do, always telling me to believe, it just makes me hungrier than ever.
“I look up to him and I feel like, ‘F*** — I don’t want to let this man that has put so much time in me down.’ I want to go there and give my 110-percent to get my win, but also to see my teammates happy for me when I get my victory.”
Free Fights: Derrick Lewis vs Curtis Blaydes | Chris Daukaus vs Shamil Abdurakhimov
And after a pair of disappointing results, Ferreira knows the pressure is on this weekend — and he likes it that way.
“I’m not going to lie — there is pressure everywhere, but I like this s***,” he said with a laugh. “I like people telling me, ‘You cannot do it; this guy is too much for you.’ That’s what makes me hungrier, makes me who I am. When you tell me I cannot do things, it makes me go out there and give my all, and I expect him to give his all, too.
“I expect his best, and to me, it’s going to be the most satisfying win of my career. It’s been a long road, but I need to go out there, get the win, and get home to my family.”