Substitution and sacrifice: How a coach made Carlos Leal’s UFC 308 dream come true

It’s a weird feeling to be on the cusp of having a dream come true, knowing the only thing that stands between you and it is one single contingency.

So close but so far away.

That’s what Carlos Leal described feeling when his team received a life-long-awaited email from UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby.

The email said that if Leal (21-5 MMA, 0-0 UFC) wanted the UFC 308 opening vs. Rinat Fakhretdinov (23-2-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC), it was his.

Obviously, he wanted it. But there was one problem.

He was still under contract with UAE Warriors. In fact, he’d already flown out for the Tuesday event in Abu Dhabi, scheduled to take place four days before the UFC held its own in the same city.

“Hey guys, so here’s the situation,” manager Lucas Lutkus, of All In Sports Management, told Leal and his team. “The UAE Warriors said that you are free to go as long as we can get a replacement. We need to figure something out.”

Lutkus began going through his rolodex of contacts, skimming to see what welterweight fighters might want to fly across the world to take on Erkin Darmenov (13-8).

As this was going on, Leal’s coach Rodrigo Cavalheiro had his mental wheels spinning. He flew across the world to corner his student, and a crazy idea popped into his head. But perhaps it wasn’t nuts after all.

“We knew that my former opponent was struggling a little bit to make weight because we were watching him every day train with sauna suits, etc.,” Leal told MMA Junkie through an interpreter. “I think he was already struggling a little bit.”

Weighing 215 pounds and only having one fight since May 2022, Cavalheiro volunteered to step in for his student if the fight could take place at middleweight.

Darmenov and the promotion agreed to bump the bout up a weight class.

To any outside observer, the move was selfless. But Cavalheiro explains the decision was actually self-centered.

“I didn’t hesitate at all,” Cavalheiro told MMA Junkie through an interpreter. “If I had to cut even more weight, I would’ve had to try to cut even more weight. Because it wasn’t just about trying to make his dream come true. It was also about making my dream come true, to have him in the UFC. It was also a dream of mine. It was basically like asking me if I want to make my dream come true. Obviously, I had to say yes. Being able to help him achieve his main objective this year. Of course, I couldn’t say no. I had to be there for my student all times.”

Cavalheiro, 41, admits he’s in the late stages of his career, semi-retired from competition with not much left in the tank.

Being out of camp only complicated things. The weight cut turned out to be a much harder fight than the bout itself.

“I wasn’t ready to come back at all,” Cavalheiro laughed. “I had just done surgery because I tore my bicep four months ago. I wasn’t thinking about fighting. I even joked with Carlos when we got the UFC offer. I said, ‘Now, I can finally retire.’ Then Lucas tells me, ‘Now, you have to fight.’ My blood boils like a fighter. My mind still works like a fighter’s mind. I have the fighting spirit. Even though I wasn’t physically ready, I was very mentally ready to step into that cage.”

The weight cut scene was quite dramatic, Lutkus describes. The team rolled down to the scale area with a fraction of a pound left but less than 10 minutes remaining in the weigh-ins window.

With sauna suits on, Cavalheiro and Leal made the most of the waning seconds of the window, however. The two engaged in intense wrestling drills next to the scale.

A crowd of UAE Warriors fighters and coaches, promotional staff and more gathered, literally cheering out loud, rooting for Cavalheiro to sweat out the final few drops.

“Rodrigo steps into the scale at like 10:59, the last possible minute,” Lutkus recalled. “The guy from the UAE Warriors organization said, ‘We can’t wait any more. You have to step on the scale right now.’ Then, he stepped on the scale and it wouldn’t stop moving between the exact weights, which was like 185 and 185.1. Then the guy was like, ‘No, we have to wait until the scale gets flat.’ The coach of his opponent was there, watching close as well. He said it felt like forever because he was weak. Then, when the scale got flat, it showed he had made the exact weight he needed to. He just let out a huge scream.”

The primal yell signified two dreams clinched – Leal’s and Cavalheiro’s. The most necessary part was over, but there was still a fight to be had.

Tuesday, Cavalheiro stepped into the cage opposite an opponent 13 years younger, who trained a full camp. The odds were fully against him, but the MMA gods were behind him.

As the clock ticked past the midway point of Round 1, Cavalheiro nailed Darmenov with a big left hook and followed it up with punches that put the Russian fighter to sleep.

It was the cherry on top of an already special fight week sundae.

“I’m not only Carlos’ head coach, I’m his main sparring partner,” Cavalheiro said. “I know I have to keep myself at my best. Because if I want him to become a world champion one day, I have to be a big challenge for him at the gym to make him keep evolving. I know that I have to get better, and better, and better. … I also knew I could take a fight on a few days’ notice. I’m not sure if I’m ever doing that again unless I really need to. But it was good to show to me that even though I wasn’t physically 100 percent, I could still knock people out at the international.”

With Cavalheiro’s fight done, the attention was immediately back on the primary goal. It was the same goal that was on their minds when they boarded their flight from Brazil to United Arab Emirates, just with a different twist.

The sacrifice of his coach is not lost on Leal. He now feels it even more imperative to make an impact in his UFC debut Saturday. Just as Cavalheiro viewed Leal’s fight as a dream come true, Leal views a victory as not only his own, but Cavalheiro’s as well.

“We really do have a great bond,” Leal said. “Over and over across the years, he’s had several opportunities to show to me how much he cares about me. He has done that time and time again. Every time he does something like this, I think it makes us even more in sync. I’m feeling better than ever for what I witnessed and what I saw him do. He showed to me that anything is possible. I’m pretty sure I’m going to pay him back for the sacrifice that he did for me when I get in the cage Saturday and knock Rinat out.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 308.

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Substitution and sacrifice: How a coach made Carlos Leal’s UFC 308 dream come true