Pedro Rizzo Wants To End His Career In The UFC

Source: MMAFighting

MMA veteran Pedro Rizzo has had an inconsistent career, but the 37-year-old Brazilian has always been respected for his potent striking arsenal and his longevity in the sport.

The Rock has been competing since the late 1990s and has faced off against some of the best in the sport. Though the 2000s have seen Rizzo go back and forth, he is currently riding a three-fight winning streak and has aligned himself with Black House -- the team which currently features UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, the Nogueira brothers, Junior dos Santos, Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante and a host of other supremely talented competitors.

Rizzo prepared Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Anderson Silva both for their fights last weekend at UFC: Rio and spoke with MMAFighting.com's Ariel Helwani at the Team Nogueira training center in Rio de Janeiro a few days after the fight. In speaking with Helwani, Rizzo stated his desire to reenter the heavyweight ranks in the UFC, stating that he believes he is currently at his best and would like to spend his the last years of his career in the UFC.

"I still want to fight. I think I'm in my prime," said Rizzo. "Since I started training Anderson, I started training everybody together. Rodrigo (Nogueira), Rogerio (Nogueira), (Junior) dos Santos, 'Bigfoot' (Silva), Glover Teixeira, Rafael 'Feijao' -- we are all training together. I think we have the best MMA team in the world. I'm training with these guys everyday. I really think I'm in my prime. I just came back from Holland. I was in Holland for six weeks training everyday with Peter Aerts, Stephan Leko, Jerome le Banner. I lose 8 kilos, around 20 pounds; I'm in the best shape of my life. I'm still training everyday and I really want to fight. What is now my goal, I want to go back to the UFC. I hope I can retire my career there. My manager is talking with the UFC. He's trying to put me back there."

Rizzo last appeared in action in July of last year, where he defeated Ken Shamrock via first round TKO at Impact FC 2.