via e.imguol.com

Diego Brandao recently talked to UOL Esportes about his fighting style and hardships throughout life. During the fourteenth season of The Ultimate Fighter, Brandao came out looking like an aggressive style fighter and he doesn’t appear to want to change his personality now once he has arrived at Greg Jackson’s camp:

I want to be a Mike Tyson, a Wanderlei Silva. When I go inside the ring I’m thinking of these guys. For me there’s no strategy talk, I go in for the kill

Much like Rousimar Palhares, Brandao, a native of Ceara, started working at a young age with construction helping his father:

I’d always help (my father). I would put my hands in the dough, I would carry bags of cement. I think that may be why I have heavy hands

Unfortunately after losing his father, Brandao took the wrong path for a while, choosing a lifestyle of drugs but ultimately making the correct decision in leaving that life:

It was a crazy life. I wouldn’t die of hunger, it’s something that got stuck in my head when my father passed away and I spent two years in this crazy life, in the company of people I shouldn’t be around. So I thought to myself “I’m going to get away from this life, I’m not a junkie” and so I searched out for the sport

It certainly appears to have been a good decision on Brandao’s part, who recently said in a TUF episode that he would also like to take his brother out of that lifestyle, wish him all the best in accomplishing that:

I am very happy with this opportunity. I came to change the lifestyle of my family, I will show that I’m capable and do what’s best for them. God has a plan for everyone, I prayed a lot and here I am