East Providence resident Paiva continues winning MMA ways

“Sweetbread” captures fourth straight win in fight against Barberena

By Mathew Galvao
Posted 2/6/18

LINCOLN — Dinis “Sweetbread” Paiva captured his fourth straight win after he defeated Kevin Barberena in three rounds at the CES-MMA 48 card on Friday night at Twin River Casino. With the win, …

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East Providence resident Paiva continues winning MMA ways

“Sweetbread” captures fourth straight win in fight against Barberena

Posted

LINCOLN — Dinis “Sweetbread” Paiva captured his fourth straight win after he defeated Kevin Barberena in three rounds at the CES-MMA 48 card on Friday night at Twin River Casino. With the win, the East Providence native is now 11-6-0 in his 17 career fights in the MMA.

“Got the win...it was a strong win. I beat him (Barberena) 10-8 in one of the rounds. I didn’t get to finish,” said Paiva post-fight. “I think I let up too many times. I really gotta go back and watch the fight...self-criticise, self-analyze, make some adjustments and head out forward from there.”

Paiva was able to land some good shots on Barberena in the middle round. With about two minutes to go in the round, Paiva landed a big left hook to Barberena that cut him and put pressure on Barberena heading into the final round.

“Just momentum...range. I didn’t want to give up more than I needed to. No need to rush. At this level of the game guys can catch you slipping and I knew that’s what he wanted me to do,” Paiva explained on his second round tactics. “I stood patient and stuck to the game plan.”

When facing Paiva, most fighters tend to have a game plan in which they try and get Paiva to the ground because of his stand-up style of fighting. It’s exactly what his opponent wanted to do in Friday night’s fight. Sweetbread credits his success in high school wrestling that helps him defend that type of attack from his opponents.

“I did a lot of wrestling when I was in high school. I was a state champion and an All-American. Wrestling is what got me to MMA,” said Paiva. “I like to stand up because it gets people excited and it’s what they want to see. If I need to take somebody down or defend a takedown then that’s my next option from there.”

Paiva stood strong in the third round and put the fight in the hands of the judges. Two of the judges scored the fight 30-26 in favor of Sweetbread as he earned his fourth straight win in CES-MMA.

“I’ve been working. I’ve been grinding non-stop. Just this month I worked 300 hours along with time training,” explained Paiva on what got him to four straight victories. “I grind hard. I out-work anybody on and off the job site and in and out of the gym.”

Photos and video by Richard W Dionne Jr

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