By Fantana: Michael Oliveira, it is the sort of name that could belong to a sculptor like Leonardo Da Vinci. But rather than belonging to a sculptor who uses his hands to make models out of clay, Michael Oliveira uses his hands as fists to model opponents faces into pulp. The unbeaten middleweight has ten knockout victories in his first twelve fights, a clear indicator of the power he possesses. This twenty year old prospect is fighting on November 20th in the country of his birth, Brazil. This is in fact his Brazilian debut and he is of course keen to impress the locals. Named as the Brazilian International Press Award’s 2009 Athlete of the Year, he was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, but just two weeks later he and his family moved to Miami.
Miami residents might be known the world over as party people but Michael Oliveira trains hard. His routine involves him going to bed as early as 8pm, right after Coronation Street finishes. He has to go to bed so early so that he can get up refreshed for his daily start at 5am.. His training consists of heavy neck weight harness exercises, speed bag, medicine ball, swiss ball, lots and lots of jump rope and beating the heavy bag like it owes him money. His current training camp started on September 15th, meaning come fight night on November 20th he will have been training for a gruelling 10 weeks. Make no mistake about it when it comes to training it is just like his dancing, he never misses a beat.
When thinking of a category Michael Oliveira isn’t what you would a defensive fighter; he is an all-out action pressure fighter who throws a lot of punches. Hard, vicious punches, right in people’s faces, he is the type of fighter that really excites a crowd, in a non-gay way. Spectators come away from his fights fans, counting down the days until he is next climbs through the ropes and into their hearts.
But it isn’t just boxing fans who love him dearly. He has an interesting background much like Roberto Duran’s and there are many stories about his courageous feats. My personal favourite is the story of a young 15 year old Michael who was out one quiet night enjoying the countryside in Brazil with some woman. Suddenly he noticed a burning house and he could hear a baby crying from inside. Without hesitation Michael Oliveira punched the door off its hinges and ran through the blazing inferno to rescue the crying baby from upstairs. Upstairs he actually found it was not a baby crying, but a yelping mongrel dog that was trapped, but he saved its life anyway. Outside the burning house a crowd of people had gathered who were cheering on the new hero. The locals roughly translated name for him is “The man with fire in his eyes and warmth in his heart.”
With his style, ambition and the stories about him there is absolutely no doubt about it Michael Oliveira has all the potential assets to be a boxing superstar. Right now he is the most exciting middleweight prospect in the world. This is one guy to keep an eye on, and if you are fortunate enough to be in Sao Paulo on November 20th tell Michael Oliveira his favourite British writer for East Side Boxing says hi.