Junior “Cigano” dos Santos announced, on his official Twitter profile, that he will no longer be managed by Jorge Guimarães and Ed Moraes – who also take or took care of the career of names like Anderson Silva, Rodrigo Minotauro Nogueira, Lyoto Machida, Jose Aldo Junior and Rogerio Minotouro Nogueira, among others.
Dos Santos’ Boxing coach, Luis Carlos Dorea confirmed on a chat with TATAME the replacement. “Cigano has other plans now, another way of thinking. Ed and Joinha helped him a lot, the friendship hasn’t ended, but it was the right moment to do it”, said Dorea, guaranteeing that it was a peaceful moment of closure. “He’s young, but he has a good head. He’s setting a great structure”.
TATAME called Ed Soares, who talked about the end of the partnership, but hasn’t told the reason that brought Junior to make this decision. “There was not much talking, that was it. He’s the captain of his own boat, we’re just there to help him guide it the right way… If the guy wants to go another direction, who am I to tell him otherwise? I was his manager, not his father”, tells Soares, on the chat that you can read here below.
Dos Santos has announced you are no longer his managers. Is it true?
It’s all fine, he made his choice and it’ll be the best for his career. There was not much talking, that was it. He’s the captain of his own boat, we’re just there to help him guide it the right way. We’ve done a great job, bringing him to the place he is now in a little over two years, but it’s a matter of opinion. He wants to go a different way. If that’s how he fells, God bless him on his journey.
Did he tell you why?
To tell you the truth, he hasn’t said why. I asked him, but he wasn’t much specific. The only thing he told me was that the decision ahs been made. What am I supposed to say? If the guy wants to go another direction, who am I to tell him otherwise? I was his manager, not his father.
Were you upset?
Of course I’m a little sad about his decision… We worked together and did a great job. He was feeling like it was the beginning, so that’s life. It’s not the first time it happens on the fighting business and neither will be the last. He’ll follow his way and we’ll follow yours. I’m upset, Joinha is upset… I don’t know if he is, but he was the one who made the call. Now it’s up to us to move on.
Were you surprised by his decision?
It wasn’t a complete surprise to me. To be pretty honest, for everything we see on the fighting world, it’s hard to get caught by surprise. It wasn’t an argument or anything like that. It was all ok. If the guy doesn’t want to work with us, how can I force him to do it? It won’t be a good relationship. The work we did together was successful. We did was we were supposed to do, he did his job on the octagon, and it took us to gather a great team to help him to get there. Let’s see what happens now. I hope it all works out just fine for him. I’m sad, I’d be lying if I told you otherwise, but I don’t wish people bad things.
Where do you see your relationship with him going?
I remember knowing Junior before representing him. I met him in England, he was lost in the airport. He came and talked to me because he has seen me on the TV show “Passando a Guarda”. He was there because he went to help Crocota. I called him, we were going to the same hotel, and then we started being friends. Then, after I saw him fighting back in Brazil, I remember him as a “kid”, of 21, 22 years. He’s always been a super nice person, good, but when you start to grow old, start being successful, sometimes your way of seeing things changes a but, which is normal, and not in a bad way. I’ll try to give you an example in Portuguese, that I don’t know if will express exactly what I want to say. I thought the glass was half full, but he thought it was half empty. None of us was lying. I still don’t know why it happened, but right now it doesn’t really matter. The choice was made, and I accepted it. God bless you.
Will you remain friends afterwards?
Of course, I won’t treat him badly, we were a part of his life and I won’t forget it, and I hope he doesn’t either. Good luck, Gob blesses you. I don’t wish bad things for him, I want to see him being successful, because it’ll only confirm that what we first thought about Cigano was right. He wasn’t our first champion, and he won’t be the last. That’s life, so let’s move on. I’m sad, of course, but that’s the way it is, it’s not always happiness.
Source: Junior dos Santos splits with managers Ed Soares and Jorge Guimarães