Pedro Carvalho is obsessed with becoming a World Champion.
Everything he does, every step he takes is done in a bid to get him closer to reaching the pinnacle of his sport.
It's not about money or fame, and it certainly isn't because it's an easy life. It's simply about being recognised as the best.
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"That’s the goal, to be World Champion," Says Carvalho, who fights Jeremy Kennedy at Bellator Dublin this Saturday.
"Me talking about how good I am, that is not enough. I need the proof, and the proof of that is the belt."
"I know that to get my shot I need to beat Jeremy Kennedy, and then it’s pretty feasible that I’m fighting for the belt.
"Me being World Champion, that’s something that’s going to happen. Soon, this will be true."
A true veteran of the sport, Carvalho has been fighting since 2012 and in that time has fought the best of the best.
In 2020, he had his first title shot but was finished by pound-for-pound king Patricio Pitbull. It was understandably a bitterly disappointing loss for the 27-year-old, who never got going in that fight.
He'd love to run that one back, but if he's telling the truth he doesn't care who has to beat to become a champion.
"I’ll be honest, I’d be delighted to fight him because I could prove to me and everyone else that I was the one that messed up in that fight, not that he was better than me," says Carvalho.
"But at the same time, I’m not focused on that.
"The focus is on me, and me becoming World Champion. That’s the only focus. I don’t want to see faces, I don’t care who it is.
"If it’s a rematch against Pitbull then it’s going to be even more special. Especially because pound for pound, he’s one of the best featherweights of all time.
"But, if in the end he vacates the belt and I fight someone else, I don’t care.
"The only thing that is on my mind is that shining, beautiful belt."
This isn't pipe dream stuff either. The Portuguese star who has made his home in Dublin is number three in the Bellator featherweight rankings and was extremely impressive in his manhandling performance of Mads Burnell last September.
It was a performance that 'The Game' considers to be one of the best of his career so far. Coming into that one, Carvalho was under serious pressure having lost three of his last four fights.
This allowed him to use perhaps his most important asset and skill - his mental strength.
"It’s my belief and my pure desire of wanting this. No one wants this more than me. I’ll never even get close to quitting. Doesn’t matter if it’s a small thing or a big thing. I will never quit and I will never back down. That’s me.
"These ‘deep water’ moments, it doesn’t matter if it’s inside the ring or just personal things. I just do outside the cage exactly what I do inside. I take a deep breath, I collect myself and I’ll make sure I’m the next one to hit. And when I hit man, I make sure that you do not want to be hit again."
A key component of this is the ability to put things to the back of one's mind and block out the outside noise.
For SBG fighters, this has been easier said than done in recent months.
Before Christmas, it emerged that Conor McGregor and Artem Lobov, two SBG stalwarts, were preparing for a bitter lawsuit over the Proper 12 Whiskey brand. The specifics of the argument may well be argued in court one day as the feud between the two former friends becomes increasingly personal.
But how does this affect a man like Pedro, a long-time partner and friend of both McGregor and Lobov?
"I can pretty much block it out for one reason - I was always that guy who, you know, the personal matters of other people, I don’t care.
"That’s why I don’t watch these sh***y shows you see on TV or whatever. Because the lives of other people just don’t matter to me.
"All that matters to me is mine and my families lives. All the rest, people can do whatever they want. As long as they respect me and treat me like a human being, it’s all good.
"Of course, there are some particular situations that are more visible than others, and you can’t not know about them. But for me personally it doesn’t affect me at all. It’s their lives not mine. It is what it is."
Experience brings with it maturity and Carvalho comes into this next fight seeking a win by any means possible. In the past he may have gone all out for the finish, but now he understands that getting the 'W' is truly all that matters.
Especially if he wants to make good on his promise of bringing a World title fight to Ireland by the end of 2023.
And with his level of desire, who'd bet against him?
*****
Tickets to BELLATOR 291: Amosov vs. Storley 2, taking place at Dublin’s 3Arena on Saturday, February 25, are available from Ticketmaster.ie and Bellator.com
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