5 Things You Might Not Know About Matheus Scheffel

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Matheus Scheffel was sure his Professional Fighters League season was over. Then fate intervened.

Scheffel will replace the injured Bruno Cappelozza when he meets top-seeded Denis Goltsov in one of two heavyweight semifinals at PFL 8 this Saturday at Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, Wales. The winner moves on to the Nov. 25 final and a shot at $1 million. Scheffel, 29, owns a 1-1 record in the promotion. He last competed at PFL 5, where he earned a unanimous decision over Cappelozza—the defending league champion at heavyweight—on June 24.

As Scheffel approaches his second-chance opportunity opposite Goltsov, here are five things you might not know about him:

1. Youth was not wasted on him.

Scheffel made his professional mixed martial arts debut at the age of 19 on Feb. 11, 2012, when he took a three-round unanimous decision from Maicon Sidrac at a Striker’s House Cup event in Curitiba, Brazil. He went on to post a perfect 4-0 record as a teenager, including back-to-back knockouts of Diego Jandoza and Christiano Frohlich.

2. Lineage lends him credibility.

“Buffa” operates out of the CM System camp fronted by Cristiano Marcello, the former Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach at the famed Chute Boxe academy. A number of all-time greats have trained under or alongside Marcello, from Mauricio Rua, Wanderlei Silva and Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino to Kazushi Sakuraba and Jose Landi-Jons.

3. His resume includes a regional souvenir.

Scheffel captured the vacant Future Fighting Championships in October 2019, as he put away Fabio Augusto de Assis Vasconcelos with punches in the first round of their FFC 9 main event. The Brazilian went on to a failed appearance on Dana White’s Contender Series and an assignment with Face The Danger before signing with the PFL.

4. Edge-of-your-seat moments are not foreign to him.

Nearly a quarter of Scheffel’s 24 career appearances have concluded inside one minute, including a 46-second submission loss to Klidson Abreu under the Beltrao Combat banner in 2012. He recorded his fastest finish to date on March 14, 2015, when he punched out Marck Polimeno in 28 seconds at Striker’s House Cup 47.

5. He can handle himself in court.

Scheffel has gone the distance six times as a pro and carries a stellar 5-1 record in those bouts. The lone outlier? A split decision defeat to Acacio dos Santos at FFC 1 in January 2019.