Marco Ruas: Pedro Rizzo must have the right mindset against Fedor Emelianenko

As the June 21st fight between Fedor Emelianenko and  Pedro Rizzo, Rizzo’s coach Marcos Ruas has come out with some comments about his student today. Believing that Rizzo can beat The Last Emperor with the right mindset, he spoke the following to Tatame.com:

“Pedro has all the tools, it’s up to him, his mind. He told me he wants it: ‘I wanna prove to myself I’m a fighter and I have all conditions to pull out good fights’. He has all the chances to do so”.

While toppling the legendary Emelianenko will be a tall task, Ruas and Rizzo seem to think that the feat can be accomplished. Rizzo is approaching the twilight of his career and many believe Emelianenko is doing the same. However, Fedor has stayed much more active as of late than his Brazilian opponent, winning two in a row over Jeff Monson and Satoshi Ishii. Rizzo will look to finish the fight quickly according to Ruas:

“He can’t stay still in front of the guy because he’s dangerous and explosive. He’s gotta go for it and get the knockout. He can’t have a boring fight, he must believe his potential and run through that guy. He can’t keep thinking ‘oh, it’s Fedor, it’s Fedor’. Go there and knock him out. It’s kill or die, he must go for it”.

It appears that their strategy will be to go for broke and either knock Fedor out or be knocked out. This plan should make for an exciting match for the fans. Emelianenko is heavily favored and will be fighting in front of his hometown crowd at the Ice Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia. Does Pedro Rizzo still have what it takes to knock out The Last Emperor?

Further Reading: Fedor Emelianenko: It’s not a fact that the fight with Pedro Rizzo will be my last