Featherweight Hacran Dias is the latest prospect to emerge from the celebrated Nova Uniao camp in Brazil, and like many of the team's fighters, he's endured a hard road on the way to the big show.
Now on the cusp of his UFC debut against fellow Brazilian fighter Yuri Alcantara (27-3 MMA, 2-0 UFC), Dias (20-1-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) wants to give his family a better life with success in the octagon.
"Everything I do, I do with my daughter in mind," Dias told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). "I don't want to stay here on the hill (in a favela) around drug trafficking. I want her to go to college, maybe even study overseas."
Dias hopes to make a deposit on that dream when he meets Alcantara on the pay-per-view main card of UFC 147, which takes place Saturday at Estádio Jornalista Felipe Drumond in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
"I think God does everything at the right time," he said. "If I hadn't managed to get in (to the UFC) before, it's because it wasn't my time yet. I was very happy to get in. It's the opportunity of my life."
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