Bellator's Guilherme Vasconcelos glad he took Joe Schilling's advice to 'believe in my hands'

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – With two finishes in two fights, Guilherme Vasconcelos’ Bellator career is certainly off to a solid start.

After knocking out John Mercurio (8-8 MMA, 0-2 BMMA) in the second round of their Bellator 170 welterweight bout on Saturday, Vasconcelos (9-3 MMA, 2-0 BMMA) added a ninth finish to a professional career that’s gone to the judges’ scorecards just three times – incidentally, his only three losses to date.

While the penchant for early endings is made clear by the Brazilian jiu-jitsu expert’s background, he said they’re merely the result of well-fought battles.

“I just want to win,” Vasconcelos said. “If he gives me a chance to submit him, I will take it. If I have a chance to ground and pound him, and finish on the ground, I will finish. And same thing on the knockout. I just fight for the win. That’s my goal.

“I think that the knockout or submission come with a good fight. If you do a good fight, you can do this kind of – it happens, you know what I mean?”

The welterweight scrap was featured on the MMAjunkie-streamed preliminary-card portion of Bellator 170, which took place Saturday at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif.

Vasconcelos, who’d previously spoken to MMAjunkie about the help provided by the likes of his No. 1 sparring partner, veteran kickboxing champion Joe Schilling, went on to say how advice from Schilling helped him walk away with the big knockout.

“I started training muay Thai with Joe Schilling, and he said to me all the time to believe in my hands, and I believed (it) today,” he said.

Vasconcelos now rides a two-fight winning streak since a loss to Marcin Santos in 2015 that snapped a victorious four-fight run in the local circuit. The Brazilian fighter, who emerged as an intriguing prospect after a run on “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil” (and was even taken under coach Chael Sonnen’s wing for an ultimately unsuccessful one-off with the UFC), is no stranger to the weight of expectations.

But as he deals with the increased eyeballs on his blooming career, the fighter said it’s not about dismissing pressure altogether – and yet learning how to handle it as it comes.

“By the way, there’s always pressure,” Vasconcelos said. “When you fight, I say no pressure – no, there’s always pressure. You have to deal with the pressure. The thing, it can make you grow or can paralyze you. So I kind of like, ‘OK, now is my time. I believe it’s my time.’ If you’re doing good, more pressure comes to you. You can’t run. You have to deal with it.”

For more on Vasconcelos’ thoughts on the big win, check out the video above.

And for complete coverage of Bellator 170, check out the MMA Events section of the site.