Brazilian Top Team has produced some of the best MMA fighters in its heyday, from the Nogueira brothers to Murilo Bustamante, Ricardo Arona, Vitor Belfort and Paulo Filho. With Bustamante still leading BTT to this day, it’s time for Jose Delano to try and bring the team back to the UFC for the first time since Rousimar Palhares and Pedro Nobre’s run in the early 2010’s.
Delano will fight for a UFC contract Tuesday night, battling Manuel Exposito in the main event of the second Dana White’s Contender
Series card of 2025.
“It makes me proud to represent Brazilian Top Team,” Delano told MMA Fighting. “Master Murilo Bustamante is here with me, and he’s very happy. It’s gratifying to be able to give back to them for all the hard work and dedication to get me to this opportunity. I’m very happy to represent and put Brazilian Top Team back in the UFC.”
Bustamante was the first Brazilian to win a UFC belt in the modern era, capturing and defending the 185-pound title back in 2002 before leaving the company as champion to join PRIDE in 2003. More than two decades later, Delano is confident that he will be “the first of many” BTT athletes to enter the UFC.
“I’m here for a reason,” Delano said. “I’m here because I have a lot of friends that are as tough as I am, who make me evolve, who train me to get where I am now. I’ll open doors for the team so we can all shine in the stages around the world.
“[Bustamante] is always giving us insight of how it was back in his day, his journey and more. And it motivates me to once again have him by my side. He’s always with me, and will be in my corner again. It’s going to be an honor to have him at the APEX with me.”
A former Shooto Brazil champion, Delano has struggled making weight in the Brazilian scene in the past, coming in over the limit for both LFA title shots. Victorious in both matches, he’s figured things out and made 145 pounds for Tuesday’s DWCS headliner.
Nine of Delano’s 15 professional MMA wins came by way of stoppage, and that’s the gameplan to impress UFC CEO Dana White.
“I’m going all-in in the first round,” Delano said. “I won’t let it go past the first round. I’ll either kill or be killed. I’m not going there to go past the first round. Maybe I’ll spend a minute feeling and studying the fight. I don’t know how the adrenaline will be at the time, but if I already feel comfortable in the first minute, it’s all-in.
“If you watch all my LFA fights, all seven of them, even thew loss, I’m always moving forward to put on a spectacle worth of Dana White’s Contender Series. With a contract on the line or not, I’ve always given my all inside the octagon as if it were a chance to be in the UFC. I’m always with that mindset, I need to put on a show because winning is not enough.”
