American Top Team (ATT) coach Marcos DaMatta was denied a flight to Fight Island last week after possibly testing positive for the coronavirus.
However, another test was conducted and it came back negative, clearing DaMatta to make his way to Fight Island.
“Everyone sent messages of support, they were worried about me, so I wanted to thank everyone,” DaMatta told MMA Fighting. “I’m grateful and happy to have tested negative and be able to travel to ‘Fight Island’ and help the American Top Team athletes.”
DaMatta is expected to arrive to Fight Island today, but won’t be allowed to corner ATT fighters until Wednesday due to a mandatory 48 hour quarantine.
One of DaMatta’s students is Amanda Ribas and he feels that Ribas will defeat Paige VanZant tonight at UFC 251.
“Amanda Ribas did her entire camp in her home town Varginha but we trained together online every day through FaceTime, and she had a great training camp,” DaMatta said. “We were able to fix some mistakes she did in her last fight with Randa Markos, and also in the Mackenzie (Dern) fight. I think Amanda is better than Paige in every aspect of the fight, everywhere, but Paige is an unpredictable fighter, so we have out strategy prepared and I 100 percent believe that Amanda will come out victorious. I’d be happy to be there to help her, but we’ll see.”
There is no word yet on who DaMatta will actually be cornering once the 48 hour quarantine ends, as there will still be three UFC events for him to attend on Fight Island.
