Filippo Stabile interview

Filippo Stabile is in my humble opinion the best italian fighter pound for pound.

An extraordinary grappler, a black belt in Sambo, a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under Robin Gracie, Filippo is huge, about 190 cm and 105 kg of pure muscle and power. At 29 he has reached important goals in his fighting career:

Robin Gracie Copa Europa. Barcellona 2000 winner heavyweight division

Ultimate Grappling Challenge Germany 2001 runner up

Luta Livre Tourney Rome, Italia 2001 winner heavyweight division and absolute class

Filippo Stabile with Robin Gracie

I’ve met Filippo Stabile for a training session here in Milano Italia.

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He’s a great instructor and a cool guy, very humble and down to earth., after an hour and half of training in submission we talk for about an hour and here is the interwiew

SFUK : Filippo tell me something about you and your background

Filippo Stabile : I started when I was a kid in free style wrestling, then i discovered Sambo, i trained a lot with an ukrainian master who worked in Torino. But back in that days i was also doing boxing, thai boxing, as you can see i cross-train a lot because my goal was not to became a Black Belt in every martial arts, but trying to improve my self defence skills.

Then about 7 or 8 years ago, i was travelling across Europe and i heard something about Vale Tudo, i saw the UFC 1 and i discovered the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I was impressed about this style and his effectivity.

SFUK: So you started to train in BJJ ?

Filippo Stabile : Yes, at the beginning it was not easy to find someone in Europe who could teach BJJ properly, I trained with some brazilian guys from Recife who worked here in Italia, they were great but not really teachers, then i’ve met Robin and Rolker Gracie and i started to train in Spain.

SFUK: Did you train with other champions other than Robin Gracie ?

Filippo Stabile : Well i trained with many teachers and many fighters from around the world, i’ve spent many hours with other brazilians less famous then the Gracie, Leo Nagao for example who is a legit black belt in BJJ, and with several freestyle wrestling champions.

But let me tell you something, today it seems to me that only if you have a "great name" you are a great teacher, but there are tons of really strong athletes and great teachers who remains in the dark side. For example, my first teacher of Sambo, the russian Ivan Karpov (also a member of USSR freestyle wrestling national team), was really great but almost unknown. He was the first (about 15 years ago) who told me the importance of grappling and ground skills for self defence, far before the UFC and the explosion of BJJ. At that time i was really a kid but i should have spent more time training with him, you know back in that days i was the only one among my friends who didn’t play soccer, my favourite sport was Sambo but noone knew that martial art, and sometimes they were kidding me, now they don’t (laughs)

SFUK: When did you start to fight in Vale Tudo?

Filippo Stabile : Well about 6 years ago, i think that i’ve been the first italian to fight Vale Tudo style. I fought in Holland and England in small events, and i’ve made many shootfighting matches. Plus tons of Submission fights with gi and no gi.

I would like to fight in great events like Pride or UFC, but i know that it’s nearly impossible, because here in Italia we have few events and there is no money involved, so italian fighters could not show their skills.

SFUK: I heard that you have a strong desire to compete in Abu Dabhi

Filippo Stabile : Yes because i think i deserve to compete (SFUK note: he’s not overconfident, he says that in a humble way), but i don’t have connections, i was a bit disappointed last year when i saw that another italian fighter was choosen to represent Italia at Abu Dabhi (btw Morris Cilfoni). You know i’ve more fights then him, and much more experience.

I still hope to represent Italia at next edition (Carl Fisher if you are reading, please contact him).

SFUK: So it’s not true that you are a retired fighter?

Filippo Stabile : Well you know, i train every day of the week, i teach submission and vale tudo in several gyms, i’m an instructor for the italian special forces (police), and i’m also a professional body guard (He works for a big big company here in Italia) so i have a full agenda, and i simply can’t compete every time that someone offers me a Vale Tudo fight or a Submission Tourney. But i’m sure that it won’t be a problem to find the time to train and to compete in Abu Dabhi (laughs)

SFUK: Tell me something about your Stabile Rage Team, how good are your guys?

Filippo Stabile : They are good, there is a guy Alessandro LaStella, 64 kg, who took second place last year in the Ultimate Grappling Challenge in Germany. In Italia he has won several submission tourneys and i think he’s a great submission fighter. Another strong guy is Ariel Colombo, he has tons of experience in kravmaga (the real one, extremely tough and effective) and he’s also a good prospect.

Maybe they are not yet ready to fight in Vale Tudo at international level, because they lack a bit of experience, but i’m sure you’re gonna hear something from them soon.

Filippo Stabile in training

SFUK: What do you think about the future of MMA in Italia?

Filippo Stabile : I think that there are some problems. In Italia MMA have a bad reputation, many events organized in the past were badly organized with mismatches and with fighters that showed very poor techniques, and the media community has been negatively impressed. I hope things will change in near future, but it’s the same old problem: NO MONEY.

We need a couple of big shows, people here seems to like MMA, we also have a great number of kickboxing and thaiboxing fans who could be involved.

But if there is a lack of MMA events, there’s an explosion of submission events, maybe because here in Italia, we have a good tradition in freestyle wrestling, we have so many judokas who can compete in this kind of competition. Maybe in the near future Submission Fighting could be the way to educate the public and maybe the first step into recognization of MMA as a sport.

SFUK: Who’s your favourite fighter?

Filippo Stabile : i’m biased about the brazilian so Vitor Belfort, Minotauro Nogueira and Ricardo Arona

SFUK: do you think Vitor could beat Tito Ortiz in the next UFC?

Filippo Stabile : It will be a war, i think Vitor could beat Tito, he’s a better striker, and people seems to ignore how good is Vitor Belfort on the ground. Tito is a great fighter and it seems to me that he’s improving his skills every fight, but again i’m biased, so i say Vitor Belfort.

SFUK: Something that you want to say at MMA fans around Europe?

Filippo Stabile : Just a message to everyone who wants to train in submission, grappling, vale tudo, bjj,they are all good styles but ask your teacher for credentials. Especially here in Italia you could find organizations that release instructor-degrees after a couple of week ends they are bad for the growth of the sport and could teach you nothing. There are many teachers who are legit and could make you improve a lot, generally speaking your goal is not a belt but to improve your skills. Keep it in mind.

SFUK: Thanks Filippo

Filippo Stabile : Thank you, www.sfuk.net and all the MMA fans across Europe.

Claudio Freschi - SFUK Italia, 31 January 2002

Filippo is available for seminars and competitions

Contact Filippo Stabile at stabilerageteam@libero.it or

Claudio Freschi at italia@sfuk.net