Young Carlos Mota is a treasure in LFA’s flyweight division. In his debut, he dispatched George Martinez with a body kick at just 36 seconds in the fight. Mota has big plans for his young career. At 25 years old, he is 5-0 with two knockouts. Mota is ready for the next step and will continue to put in the hard work to get what he dreams of.
Mota started martial arts at 8. He began practicing capoeira and then fell in love with martial arts in general. He picked up more and more sports as he got older and began to realize what fighting could do for his life.
“I started when I was 8 years old with capoeira. Then I felt that I was enjoying it. After that, I also started with taekwondo and jiu jitsu. I always did well on training and competition. Since the begining, I have noticed that fighting could bring a better life to me and to my family and that I wanted that for my life.”
Outside of fighting, Carlos Mota loves music. He spends time listening to music, drawing inspiration from it for his future. “When I am not training or fighting, I enjoy listen to good music. Music takes me to the future and help me to imagine where i want to be and how I imagine myself a couple of years ahead.”
Mota’s taste is eclectic too. When asked what was his top three songs to listen to before a fight, he answered with Champion by Nicole Serrano, Congratulations by Post Malone, and Eye of the Tiger by Survivor.
Carlos Mota at LFA 79
Carlos Mota put in a lot of work for 36 seconds at LFA 79. With a quick finish that ended a little odd, Mota says it took some time for the victory to sink in while he was in the cage.
Mota came out to prove something: that he belonged on LFA’s main card. The two touch gloves and Mota reaches his hands out with his long stance, throwing some feints. His first strike is a body kick and that would be a precursor of things to come. Mota and Martinez catches a kick from Mota and tries to swing. Mota knows his range well and fires a 1-2 and gets out of trouble. Martinez starts to fall in love with the hands and as he does, Mota fires another kick right to the solarplexes and the fight is done. Just a couple more follow up shots and the referee calls the bout off. 36 seconds.
But, despite the quick finish, Mota was happy with it. It was a culmination of all his hard work. He and his coach, Francisco Bueno, put in hard work to prepare for this fight. To be able to perform on a huge stage like LFA was a blessing to Mota.
“It was a very important fight and a very important victory. It was kind of weird feeling. It tooked me a little bit to understand what just happened. I was training hard, every day almost for two years until this fight opportunity arrived.”
Mota continues, “It was a very special work developed by my trainer and coach, Francisco Bueno , helped by Marcio Bernstein. Besides the amazing dedication given from them, physically, emotionally and finnancially, they also made me confident in that nothing could stop me. It was an important day for me. I proved myself. It is very difficult in flyweight division to see a knock out in 36 seconds, specially in an event Live LFA. This result was very important to me, where it was and how fast it was.”
While a quick night at the office is always nice, Mota still wishes that fans could have seen him work a little bit more. But he warns his next opponent as well saying, “I got Happy that the fight ended that fast. I wish I could have shown my skills. Next time you’ll see more of my game, but it will end before 1 minute.”
Mota doesn’t know when we will see him again, but he says he remains ready. Carlos Mota just plans on getting better every training session and is ready to fight at the drop of a dime.
“The next phase is to keep up with the special training that i have the privilege to have. I still don’t have the next fight date, but i am ready. I am in a constant camp.”
The goal for Mota is the UFC, like many fighters. But he doesn’t jump straight to being a two-weight champion, even though that is his goal. Carlos Mota knows that first, he has to get to the UFC before anything else.
My first goal is to get in to UFC and win everyone on my category. After I get the belt and deffend it a couple of times, I intend to change the category to bantamweight and also get the belt on this category.”
Mota and Khabib vs. Gaethje
UFC 254 features one of the most anticipated lightweight title fights in history. Lightweight kingpin, Khabib Nurmagomedov, takes on Justin Gaethje who holds the interim belt. The two will unify their titles once they step in the cage and fight. Mota takes a shot at making a prediction for the fight this weekend.
“It going to be an amazing fight. Justin has a good wrestling and good power. But Khabib’s wrestling is special and if his mind is focused and ok, he will win this fight.”
Make sure to follow Carlos Mota on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to follow his fight journey!
