I agree there might be some value here, and I put a little bit on it myself earlier, but I wouldn't suggest going overboard with this one. Wilcox has stated in interviews that he'll be fine wherever the fight goes, that he's a fighter with a fighter's mentality and he thinks he can hang with Ribeiro on the ground. He trains hard and comes from a great camp, and Camarillo is one of the best BJJ trainers out there, but it seems like Wilcox doesn't think a whole lot about gameplanning. Ribeiro, meanwhile, is no longer working as a BJJ trainer in Brazil and has devoted himself full-time to training for this fight. This includes training a few times a week with strong wrestlers like the Miller brothers (dan and jim, not cole and micah
). He sounds highly motivated, and you'd have to think that if the fight hits the ground Ribeiro is on another level, no matter how hard Wilcox has been training. There's a good chance we'll see a better Ribeiro than we've seen before, and this fight may bring back some of the hype he had when he was a new prospect in MMA. Just some food for thought.