TUF Questions: Ido Pariente

Ido Pariente (8-3) is an Israeli lightweight in the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter, premiering tonight.  He faced Fighters.com’s third-ranked welterweight and current EliteXC champion Jake Shields (21-4-1) in June 2007.

Fighters.com:  How did you get started in MMA?

Ido Pariente: I have been doing martial arts all my life, I started with karate and I hold a third degree black belt, when I was 18 years old I first saw the UFC and I knew right then that I have to fight there one day and now, 10 years after… here I am…

Fighters.com:  Who are some of your heroes, in sports or otherwise?

Ido Pariente:  Royce Gracie [14-3-3] was my first hero in this sport. I really look up to people that do things that seem impossible, like Randy Couture [16-8] holding the heavyweight title at his age and Anderson Silva [22-4] for not letting anyone pass the second round. Arnold Schwarzenegger is someone to admire, the guy came from a foreign country to the US with a dream, he became Mr. Olympia, then became the greatest action movie star and then a governor… all because he had a dream.  So people like that inspire me to keep dreaming and make my dreams come true…

Fighters.com:  Do you train full time or do you have another job?

Ido Pariente:  I train full time while having a job which is very hard! But my job is teaching BJJ and giving private class (BJJ and fitness) so I work my training schedule around my job.

Fighters.com:  Where do you train? Who do you train with?

Ido Pariente:  I train in Israel most of the time. I have build a strong BJJ group that keeps pushing me, and I have a Muay Thai coach, Itzik Franko, who is the best here in Israel, he has produced a world champion and two European champions and many other international competitors. Together we formed our team,TEAM FRANKO PARIENTE. Once a year I go to Brazil to train for about a month, but my direct teacher of BJJ is Patrick Bittan, a second-degree black belt under master Flavio Behring and he took second in the world championship in 2003 and 2005.

Fighters.com:  What are your biggest accomplishments so far?

Ido Pariente:  I was the VFC Lightweight Champion in 2001, Pankration World Champion 2003, European BJJ champion brown belt 2007, and Desert Combat Lightweight 2007 and still holding the title.

Fighters.com:  What did you learn from your fight with Jake Shields?

Ido Pariente:  Well I have a guy helping us get fights in K-1 and I have fought in two K-1 events before this fight. When I was offered the fight against Jake I have heard about him before but I didn’t exactly know who he was so automatically I said yes. About a week later I found out that he was a welterweight (and I’m a lightweight) so I turned to my contact and told him, and he said it’s this fight or no fight, well it’s K-1 Dynamite, of course I’m fighting. I was training to win, not just to show my face in the big show, and I thought I was going to beat him. But Jake is very good and now I know it from up close. He beat me in two minutes and I took it really bad at first. Until I saw his fight against Renato Verissimo (7-5), he did to him in four minutes what he did to me in two, so that made me feel a little better (not too much though).

Fighters.com:  Outside of MMA, what are some of your interests or hobbies?

Ido Pariente:  I have dedicated my life to this sport and to put Israel on the MMA map so I train a lot. Other than that I am one of the first teachers of BJJ here so I have a school with around 100 students where I teach four times a week and I give private classes in the morning, I’m also a fitness instructor so I give private classes for that as well. Other than that I love to go to the beach and just chill, I read books, and on weekends when I’m not preparing for any fights I love going to rave parties (BUT I DON’T DO DRUGS).

Fighters.com:  What would you do if you weren’t a fighter?

Ido Pariente:  That I really don’t know…

Fighters.com:  What was the biggest sacrifice you made to participate in the show?

Ido Pariente:  Well, there are two actually…
1. leaving my wife, but she was very supportive
2. leaving my academy , all my students and all my private classes not knowing what will happen when I come back.

Fighters.com:  Who has helped you the most to get you where you are now?

Ido Pariente:  Up until three years ago I did everything on my own, I worked, saved money and used it to go train somewhere or compete… that is really hard, I also trained myself all this time and I didn’t always have a corner in my fights. About three years ago I got together with Franko and learned what it is to have a coach and a good corner man. So I can say that he really helped me the most…