‘It won’t happen again’: UFC Abu Dhabi’s Elves Brener discusses lesson learned in ‘messed up’ weight cut before first loss

Elves Brener vows to be more professional year-round to ensure his weight is on-point following a rough experience before, during, and after his recent UFC bout in May.

Brener made weight for a UFC 301 lightweight clash against Myktybek Orolbai in Brazil, but lost a decision. The Chute Boxe prospect was 3-0 in the UFC with two bonuses claimed prior to that, and now looks back at his experience in Rio de Janeiro as a learning lesson.

“I was having a lot of problems with my weight cut,” Brener told MMA Fighting ahead of his fight with Joel Alvarez on Saturday at UFC Abu Dhabi. “I was always returning to Sao Paulo from Amazonas at around 200 pounds and agreed to a fight and had to rush things to make 155 in two or three months, and that wasn’t good for me. After this fight, I sat down with [coaches] Diego [Lima] and Allan [Nascimento] and set a limit I could go up before having to cut down again.”

Brener traveled early to Abu Dhabi this time and said he wouldn’t go over 176 pounds while in camp for the fight. Off camp, Brener won’t go over 180 pounds.

“It was messed up. I was drained, and it won’t happen again,” Brener said of his UFC 301 weight cut. “I’ll be more professional. Not that I wasn’t being a professional, but we always believe we’ll make weight. I went there and made weight, but how healthy is that for me and my future? I want to see my kids grow up and enjoy retirement.

“I have a professional mindset now and I won’t be defeated by my mouth. I came from the bottom and I’m poor, I’ve never seen so much food in my life [laughs], but I won’t be defeated by my mouth. I’ll live like an athlete all year round. Some people don’t do that. I’ve learned that when it happened to me. We see others say, ‘This guy doesn’t live like an athlete and it will come back at him eventually’. But we only learn when it happens to us. It has happened to me and it’s all good, I’ve learned it.”

“I don’t want to go to a fight like that anymore, having to make weight that way with my vision blurry during the weight and and after the fight, during the fight,” he continued. “I don’t want to feel that again. Only I know what I went through. I don’t see that fight as a loss itself, but as a learning experience. I learned the worst way possible. I’ll come back to rebuild my company again and again and how many times I have to.”

Brener believes he would have beaten Orolbai at UFC 301 if it wasn’t for his weight-cutting drama, but expects to meet him for a rematch in the future. Brener sees Alvarez s a great opponent to bring him closer to the top 15 of the UFC lightweight division, and feels ready for the task after adding specific boxing training to his camp at Chute Boxe.

“It’s going to be just the two of us in there and we’ll break each other up,” Brener said of Alvarez, who enters the cage coming off a submission win over Marc Diakiese. “That’s what fans want to see in the cage, and I’m going there to give them that. I’ll put my hands on this guy. He’s not one of those guys with a boring wrestling style. He has a good guillotine, a good kick, but we’ll see how he does walking backwards. I’m going there to walk forward, representing the Chute Boxe style, to hit hard and puts my hands on this guy.”