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 In this interview, the king of Featherweight at Bellicose and I will discuss his story, his fights and his future on "With Dude McChadStrongwick".
Dude "Hello everybody, I'm Dude McChadStrongwick and I'm joined by the baddest man of the Featherweight division at Bellicose, whom has a perfect record of 5-0, It's Mateo Daverio, how are you doing today?"
Mateo "I'm doing well and happy to be here."
Dude "Great, I suppose we should just jump straight into the questions, how did you get into MMA?"
Mateo "I was a small kid, still am a small guy- that's why I'm a Featherwight- and got picked on, because I was kinda athletic,but scrawny on the streets in a pretty bad neighborhood in Milan. In high school it got really bad, so my parents first tried sending me to karate lessons, Way too much discipline for me.
So I suggested maybe I could learn to box instead, and I was okay, would try to clinch up and was good in the tight spaces, but man, I just wanted to use everything I had in those clinches- knee, elbow, everything- and still wasn't allowed to do it. I was complaining, about when I turned 18, in the boxing gym about the stupid rules.
So a guy overhears me, tells me of MMA, where you can do almost anything, can't kick someone in the nuts or gouge their eyes, but almost anything else. Talked to me about different styles to base it on, Muay Thai seemed like my kind of thing. So I found a Muay Thai trainer and played around with it as an amateur, became well known among amateurs in Italy.
There was some chatter, so the Britts came to watch me, and suggested if I listened to them they could help me train to be pro and make a lot of money beating people up, they loved my talent. It's important there are weight classes, because I'd still have no chance against the really big guys. No I get paid to beat guys up, and they all have to be about my size, and I'm loving life!"
Dude "so you started out boxing but later moved into MMA, doing more Muay Thai. Would you say either is your strongest attribute as a fighter so is there something else that helped you to the top?"
Mateo "I think the biggest thing that helped me, was when I learned to enjoy it- which I didn't with Boxing, so many rules, limits. I'm such a natural clinch fighter, always was, and Muay Thai I could knee and elbow, after having been beaten up even in high school, feels so good to dish that back out, and once I got into Muay Thai with less limits, I started enjoying it, so now I go in the cage and even if I like the guy I'm fighting, I still like that I get to hurt him. If he taunts me or makes me mad or something, then that's when I really enjoy ripping him a new one. Maybe I should have learned submission grappling, the scream when I did a sub move woulda felt good, but elbowing thrown in with punches and all, I can open up cuts and stuff, it's still all fun, turning the tables from what I went through as a teen."
Dude "So even if you weren't getting paid, would you risk blood and bone just to fight a bit more?"
Mateo "If there were no pro MMA, I'd still be doing it as an amateur, which I did, for years, before the Britts came out to watch me, said they were impressed, and helped to lead me to actually make big money doin' it. But if they'd never found me, or there weren't pro MMA, I'd still be doing it as an amateur, absolutely."
Dude "But has there ever been an opponent that showed any serious challenge? I only ask because from your pro fight record, there was only one person who made it to the end and even he lost."
"The rest got KO'd in such a brutal fashion too"
Mateo "I was afraid of Dell (his lastest title defence), I know. I ended up winning, but he's so talented on the ground, it takes some luck. One thing I had to start doing after turning pro was make sure I could wrestle some, even learn some submission grappling too, so I wouldn't be easy to take down and could avoid being destroyed if I was. It was something the Britts said I needed or I'd get taken down and lose that way, and though I've drilled on that it's always the nightmare scenario. So if Dell got me down and kept me there, that fight goes the other way. I worked hard to make it so it wouldn't happen, but that fight was more risky than it might've looked."
Dude "I believe that was your first title defence, but were you not intimidated by the guy you took the belt from Patrick Bateman?"
Mateo "I never take a fight for granted, but Bateman was gonna be easy to beat up on our feet, and wasn't as dangerous on the ground as Dell either. I was more confident I could handle it if he took me down, and I knew on his feet he was pretty helpless. Dell wasn't even so helpless on his feet, and was a bigger threat on the ground, so made me more nervous."
Dude "So he might as well be a dead man walking, seems like the people he had to pass to be champ were just weak or had bad managers. How do you feel about Bellicose and, mainly, your weight division?"
Mateo "I think Bellicose is an amazing organization. I couldn't ask to have a better run group to work with. They're now the only org for fighters with my level of pro experience, and that led to a lot of the guys I see around with the management group being in it too, and a lot in the same weight division, and the Britts won't want us to fight each other. We weren't all meant to be in the same division in the same org, but with other orgs folding it ended up that way. I guess Bray is working to lose weight to fight in Bantam or something, which maybe he'll be another in our group that gets a title that way. But Bellicose has good quality in every way, and the only negative at all is there are too many of us from the same group clogging up Feathers in it."
Dude "I think that's a good place to end the interview. You've been a great guest, do you have any final words before we end?"
Mateo "I just wanna say that I'm involved with a lot of class acts, that we talked about. Bellicose is a class act, the fighters I work with in the management group, the fighters at Simply The Best gym, these are class acts. My opponents mostly are too, even if I love to beat them up. I feel so lucky, making big money to do something I love, and someday I'll run into one of the bullies from high school and let him see what I can do to him now, haha."
Dude "Thank you and best of luck on your next title defence"
Mateo "Thank you and have a nice day."
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