‘Good kid’ Breno, 9, sees his future on Vegas visit with idol dos Santos

The little boy is not of the place on the tourist brochures, the ones with pictures of white-sand beaches and coconut palms, with stories of waterfalls and swimming pools and hiking trails, of the beat of bongo drums echoing through narrow cobblestone streets in a place called the Land of Happiness.

His land is one of drug lords and armed gangs, of street children being drawn to cocaine, to begging or stealing to finance their habit, to trading milk that might feed their families for more crack crystal.

They are two faces of Salvador, Brazil.

The hope is that mixed martial arts ultimately might save young Breno Ferreira from the latter.

His full name is Breno Luis Ferreira de Carvalho. He is 9 and lives with his mother and 16-year-old brother in an apartment no bigger than a family room. It is covered by a metal roof. There is little to no health care and a sewer system that on its best day is described as insufficient.

Breno needs speech therapy and will stand in line for months seeking it, with no guarantee he will be seen.

It's pretty much hell.

Breno dreams of one day literally fighting his way out of the favelas, shantytowns where the poor are pushed far into the hills to live, away from the wealth of downtown and those who visit and party along those gorgeous coastlines.

He dreams of following the path set by his hero.

Junior dos Santos puts his heavyweight title on the line against Frank Mir at UFC 146 tonight at the MGM Grand Garden, and in the crowd will be little Breno and his family.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship worked to bring them here to watch dos Santos, who through a gym in Salvador has given hope to countless young boys that life doesn't have to be defined by poverty and crime and hardship.

Dos Santos is living proof.

He, too, was once such a boy.

"I'm very close with all the kids there," he said. "We are a family in Brazil. I can see myself in Breno. He wants to be a fighter. When I was a kid, I would go and watch judo classes and imagine I could do that one day. It's the same way with Breno. He's a funny kid, very nice. This opportunity will be unforgettable for him and his mother and brother.

"It's good for the family. They will enjoy everything here. Breno is a good kid."

There is no question the entire story - discovering Breno while filming dos Santos for a segment of "UFC Primetime," later hiring bodyguards to go into the boy's favela with a picture of him and track down the family, helping secure passports, flying them here and hosting them for a fight - is a huge boost to the UFC's public relations arm.

When tales like this are made known, the company's image benefits.

Good. Great. So be it. If such a story could lead to Breno Ferreira or another like him enjoying a better life, the UFC deserves all the credit it can stand.

It is also a byproduct of such a global sport, the realization of what depths of poverty many who compete in the UFC come from, that in a heavyweight champion you have someone so appreciative, so respectful, so generous that he would make it his priority to help protect those children from the dangers of his homeland.

"It is very difficult to raise them the right way, and (sports) is the best way to keep them away from the drugs and everything there," Breno's mother, Simone, said through a translator Wednesday. "(Dos Santos) is a hero to the kids. He is the reason Breno goes directly to the gym every day after school."

Imagine how a boy from such an impoverished place would react to Las Vegas, to the lights and sounds of the Strip, to a hotel and casino the size of the MGM Grand, to the numerous cameras and reporters that snapped away and approached for interviews this week.

I noticed one thing about Breno. He couldn't stop smiling.

"(Dos Santos) is a real champion," Breno said. "I am his biggest fan. He plays with us and helps us train at the gym. He is bigger than any superhero to us.

"We never fly before. We went so high in (the plane). I was nervous at first, but they fed us and I was able to sleep."

In his world, the one far away from the white-sand beaches and coconut palms and stories of waterfalls and swimming pools and hiking trails, this is known as a great day.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on "Gridlock," ESPN 1100 and 98.9 FM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.