Daniel Pineda Talks About His History
Posted on 25 May 2012
by MMAScoops.com Staff

Robert Perez, the trainer of UFC featherweight Daniel Pineda (17-7 MMA, 2-0 UFC), told MMA Junkie about his younger days in street fights and how it led him to the UFC. He said he eventually got into MMA because his brother was training and tired of his fights every weekend.

Pineda will face Mike Brown (25-8 MMA, 1-3 UFC) at UFC 146 on Saturday from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The fight will be on the Facebook preliminary card, just before the FX prelims and the PPV main card.

Pineda lives in Houston. Pineda said he never started the fights, but never backed down. The fights happened everywhere but school. Pineda also played forward in soccer, where he once fought twelve players onthe other team with his brother. The rest of the team ran away.

Ever since he started in 2007, Pineda has fought 4-6 times a year. He had a bad year in 2009 (2-4), but had a fight fight win streak with Legacy Fighting Championship that got him a spot in the UFC. In Legacy FC, he submitted three of his five opponents, and knocked out the other two.

He made his UFC debut at "UFC on FX 1: Guillard vs Miller", where he defeated Pat Schilling by submission in less than two minutes. He then submitted Mackens Sermerizer at "UFC on FX 2: Alves vs. Kampmann."

His UFC 146 opponent Brown is a former WEC champion that has had some touch losses in WEC and UFC. He recently defeated Nam Phan and needs a win to continue climbing the featherweight ladder.

Perez on Pineda's beginnings in MMA: "He never initially wanted to fight. I was a sparring partner for his brother and I became his trainer. He was a natural at fighting. After his first six months of training, he had his first pro fight."

Pineda on why he fights: "I never back down. I'm the small guy, so they always try to pick on me.

Pineda on backing down now: "I have to. My wife got me to doing that because I used to get in a lot of trouble. She said, 'If you get beat up, what am I going to do?'"

Pineda on his fight with Mike Brown: "The wrestling – we both have it. I think we're pretty much going to stand up. I think somebody's getting knocked out in the first round. I don't think it's going to go three rounds. One of us is going to get a highlight. It's either going to be me on the mat or him on the mat."