According to Trevor Wittman, he actually tried to stop Nate Marquardt’s UFC 188 fight before the end of the second round, but wasn’t allowed to.
n MMA, a cornerman stopping a fight is very, very rare. Unlike boxing, the people advising a fighter are almost guaranteed to let a guy go out on his shield rather than protect their fighter. That’s why it was so surprising (in a good way) when Trevor Wittman stopped Nate Marquardt’sUFC 188 fight with Kelvin Gastelum after the second round of a one-sided beating. What’s even more surprising though is that Wittman actually tried while the round was still going on, but his request was ignored. He explained the whole deal to MMA Junkie:
“Taking needless damage is not good in this sport,” he said. “The damage is when it affects your sharpness and the way you perform, and to see him take punishment, that’s longevity and him having kids.”
In boxing, when a trainer steps on the apron it generally means he wants to stop the fight. So he did that. And was pulled away.
“They grabbed me, and their concern was that people couldn’t see. I’m sitting there swearing at these guys, and they’re like, ‘Get down. No one can stop the fight but the referee or the doctor.'”
Normally you’re allowed to throw in the towel, but the exact rules vary from commission to commission. At the end of the round, he told the cageside doctor and other people that Nate couldn’t continue. This time they heeded his advice and the bout was stopped.
In the end, Wittman understands the praise he has received for the decision but said he was just doing what’s right for his fighter:
“I think people praise it because you just don’t see it that often, because they’re afraid to do it. They’re afraid they’re going to lose their job with an athlete.
“I’m going to say it when I think it’s right, especially when you’re starting to see too many concussions back to back, and that was my main concern with Nate.”
He also said that Dana White gave him some advice backstage after the fight:
“‘Throw the frickin’ towel in,'” Wittman remembers. “I was like, ‘Sh-t, I would have.'”
LAS VEGAS – A few hours after she learned her UFC 187 fight had been canceled, Rose Namajunas said she still didn’t “know what I’m feeling.”
After would-be opponent Nina Ansaroff struggled and failed to make weight for their strawweight bout on Friday, the UFC nixed the 120-pound catchweight fight altogether just prior to Saturday’s event time, and Namajunas (2-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) was left without a dance partner on one of the year’s biggest cards.
MMAjunkie’s Mike Bohn caught up with “The Ultimate Fighter 20? runner-up after the pay-per-view event, which took place at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena, to discuss the cancellation of her FOX Sports 1-televised prelim.
“Right now, I don’t know what I’m feeling; I’m really confused about the whole thing,” she said. “This has never happened to me. I’ve had people pull out of amateur fights … but this is just another level. You don’t think that at this stage, it would happen, but it still does. I’m just learning how to deal with it.”
Namajunas, who said she hopes for the best for her opponent, whom UFC officials said was sidelined with the flu. Luckily for the 22-year-old “Thug,” the UFC confirmed Namajunas will receive both her show and win money.
Following the bout’s cancellation, Ansaroff issued a statement to apologize and push for a rescheduling of the bout..
“I feel just horrible about this,” Ansaroff stated. “I want to apologize to Rose, the UFC and, of course, to the fans who have really embraced me and looked forward to this fight. If it was up to me, I’d definitely fight. I was willing to fight, of course, with or without the flu, because I’m a fighter. But this is out of my control, and I just hope it’s rescheduled as soon as possible.”
Check out the full conversation above.
And for more on UFC 187, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site
A stirring three-fight run through the field on season 20 of The Ultimate Fighter last year established Rose Namajunas as a strawweight fighter with uncommon talent. Yet after falling short of championship gold in the series final against Carla Esparza, what the Milwaukee native has displayed even more impressively is uncommon honesty.
In the fight game, that’s rare. So rare that you need to mention it when it crosses your path, and when the 22-year-old discusses the most disappointing night of her professional career, there’s no machine gun spray of blame being fired everywhere but in her direction, only the realization that in this business, everything begins and ends with the one who has gloves on.
“It’s nobody’s fault but mine,” she said of her third-round submission loss to Esparza. “I woke up that day not feeling like I’m the hottest thing since sliced bread. Deep down inside I knew ‘I’m not feeling it today, I don’t want to be here.’”
Leading up to the fight, forget sliced bread; “Thug Rose” was the hottest thing since pizza when it comes to MMA prospects. Young, charismatic and a terror on fight night, Namajunas was routinely described as the next Ronda Rousey more often than not leading up to the TUF 20 final, which also doubled as the first women’s strawweight title fight in UFC history. It was a coronation before the fight even began, and while the veteran Esparza noticed every bit of it and used it as fuel, Namajunas avoided paying attention to the hype, not by choice, because she had no choice.
“Leading up to it, I really didn’t feel it because I didn’t have time to feel it,” she said. “I was constantly doing something, whether it was training or traveling to do interviews and stuff like that, so I didn’t really have time to compartmentalize it, but obviously I didn’t deal with it too well the night of.”
She laughs, but early on, it looked like she would live up to all expectations as she roared out of her corner guns blazing. That wasn’t the game plan though.
“I feel like I was losing the entire time, and it’s weird because when you’re inside your own head fighting, a lot of times it looks totally different on the outside than what you’re actually feeling,” Namajunas explains. “When you’re dominant and you know you’re dominant, it definitely feels that way, but a lot of times you have these self-doubts. I knew there were a lot of red flags that popped up throughout the whole training camp, but you just have to ignore them and push forward no matter what. I want to show up on fight day whether I’m ready or not. But in that moment, I just wanted it to be over with. I felt that the intensity that I had, even though it might have looked like I was very confident and throwing whatever, that was a very panicky Rose out there. It wasn’t the ‘cool, calm and collected, I know what I’m doing, I have a strategic step for every move and I have my legs underneath me.’ It was a very immature, impatient, ‘let’s just get this over with, I’m so tired.’”
After the first round, Namajunas was spent physically, and when her corner told her that she may have lost that round, everything else went out the window as well.
“It definitely killed my confidence even more,” she said. “So going out for the second round, I had everything going against me in my head. I don’t think the intentions were to make me lose my confidence even more, but my coaches were striving for perfection and they might have seen me going out a little bit wild and carelessly. I reacted to it in a totally different way. I was already thinking ‘that was everything I had and I still lost that round? Well, what’s the point?’ And all the excuses were tumbling down upon me and I cracked. Mentally, I broke. There were definitely some physical things that could have been better, but a lot of it was mental.”
You can’t get more honest and real than that, and that honesty may eventually be the intangible that makes Namajunas a champion one day, as she’s already realized that while fighters can lie to the world to make them seem invincible, you can’t lie to yourself. And with only five pro fights to her name, it’s a valuable lesson to learn this early. Add that to her talent level and work ethic, and days like December 12 (the date of the Esparza fight) may very well be a thing of the past.
“It was something that had to happen at that moment,” she said. “I’m really young and I’m not as experienced as a lot of these other girls that I’m competing with. But at this point now, I wouldn’t say that I’m not as inexperienced anymore, because I did have a title fight. So whether or not I won or lost, I have that experience under my belt and I learned a lot from it, so I feel like I have that to my advantage.”
This Saturday, Namajunas returns to the Octagon to face Nina Ansaroff, and the spotlight isn’t as bright as it was a few months ago, something she’s enjoying.
“It’s definitely different than fighting for the title and coming off the show, and it’s a pressure that I’m embracing a lot better,” she said. And while hindsight is always 20/20, how does she think she would have handled being champion if she did pull out the win over Esparza?
“Judging how beneficial that loss was for me at that critical point, I would say that I would have handled being a champion very terribly as opposed to what I’m going to handle it like now when I get back up there and get that belt,” she said. “I feel like I’m going to have so much more knowledge and so much more maturity. So it (not becoming champion) was a blessing in disguise. I’m glad that it’s going to happen later versus when it would have and when I thought it would have been better for me. But I’m just happy that I’m in the position that I’m in now.”
The official position Namajunas sits in is at number four in the 115-pound rankings. That’s not a bad place to be in and one that could put her back in a championship fight with a couple wins. She’s not calling out anyone at the top or looking for a title shot after Saturday night, but her goal remains unchanged.
“I look at everything the same way,” she said. “Obviously I envisioned myself being the champ and reigning for a thousand years (Laughs), but in reality, things are different, and ever since climbing up the ranks before getting to this point, I always thought the belt was going to bounce around. I’m still looking at it the same way, but it’s very competitive and everybody’s got something to show and everybody’s trying to get that belt.”
Including Ms. Namajunas, who starts the second stage of her UFC career this weekend.
“I definitely made a lot of changes over the past few months that you’re going to have up to 15 minutes to see, so tune in and hopefully you’ll get a glimpse of what my life has been like and all the changes that I’ve been through,” she said. “It’s gonna be a good one.”
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. — Luke Caudillo’s last professional fight was three years ago, and now at the age of 34, Caudillo is not only still training fighters, but he is also fighting to get into the television industry.
The North Platte native and his production crew are going around the country, bringing former and current professional fighters along, and filming the pilot for their upcoming show called Gladiators Unleashed.
“We have done all kind of different activities; hunts, fishing, ATVing, with my local teammates and other guys in mixed martial arts that I used to compete in,” Caudillo said.
Caudillo took current lightweight MMA champ, Justin Gaethje and ex-heavy weight champ, Shane Carwin out to hunt turkeys in Maxwell Saturday, for the pilot.
“For the kids and everyone it just shows that we are normal people too, it just shows us on the outside, we have family, we have life, it is all the same thing,” Carwin said.
“It’s a career that we get punched in the face a lot,” Gaethje said. “It is a very stressful career that he did and us as fighters have, and we are regular people, and we like to get out and not waste time but just have a good time.”
Right now the former fighters are still in the process of filming, but Caudillo is looking at the opportunity of the show being picked up by major networks such as the Outdoors Channel and A&E.
Whatever you do, you have to give the man credit: Justin Gaethje practices what he preaches.
Gaethje promised a memorable battle of aggression and delivered exactly that at WSOF 19, retaining his World Series of Fighting lightweight title with a spectacular third-round TKO win over Luis Palomino on March 28. It’s a fight that may go down as the greatest in the promotion’s history, and it was classic Gaethje — nonstop forward pressure, dramatic swings in momentum, and the raw, unhinged aggression that the undefeated 26-year-old has built his reputation on.
“When I’m in there, I’m in a crazy world. I don’t know where I’m at, but I’m there,” Gaethje told MMAFighting.com.
“I knew for a fact that [Palomino] was going to be a bad dude, and he was. He was. I was prepared for that and I wanted that and I got it and I love it.”
The win, and the widespread praise Gaethje received for it, now becomes a minor form validation for the WSOF champ. As the lightweight has progressed in his mixed martial arts career, he’s gradually become more vocal in his disdain for fighters who favor wins over entertainment, regardless of how boring or unremarkable those wins may be. It’s a frankness uncommon to hear in the fight game, but it’s how Gaethje see the trends developing around him.
Action fighters are at a premium, he says, and when executed on a world-class level, action fighters with their forward pressure can be the toughest puzzles to crack — as demonstrated with Rafael dos Anjos‘ stunning demolition of former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis at UFC 185.
“That made a lot of sense to me,” Gaethje said. “As a wrestler, I know what we’ve been through. I know what dos Anjos has been through, I know what (Khabib) Nurmagomedov has been through, just the challenges that they’ve been through their whole life. I don’t think Pettis was a wrestler. I’ve never done taekwondo, but I’m sure it’s not as excruciating, as physical as wrestling is.
“To be a top wrestler you have to make yourself quit. Numerous times, I’ve made myself quit, I’ve made myself cry because I couldn’t go anymore and I knew I should be able to go more. Just things like that, you can’t teach a person, you don’t learn those lessons on the streets or anywhere except challenging yourself everyday in the wrestling room.”
For now, Gaethje (14-0) remains under contract as WSOF’s lightweight champion, though he’s been anything but shy regarding his ultimate aspirations of division domination. And when it comes to dos Anjos’ underdog win, he says he ultimately wasn’t surprised because he feels he could’ve done the exact same.
“(Being the man to beat) Pettis, it could’ve been Nurmagomedov, it could’ve been dos Anjos, and it could’ve been me, because we’re all the same fighter — we pressure. Go forward,” Gaethje said. “You know, he could knock any one of us out — he’s powerful, he’s got great kicks — but if he doesn’t land that one shot, someone like me is going to run right through him because I’m never going to quit. Those little potshots that he throws sometimes, those are not going to faze me. I’m going to go right through them and keep trying to kill him.
“You go forward,” Gaethje continued. “You try to knock your opponent out. And that’s what dos Anjos did. Pettis, he believed in the hype. He believed in the hype. He didn’t come out there, he wasn’t aggressive, he didn’t try to kill dos Anjos and that’s what he gets.”
In a discussion of some of the elite lightweight fighters in the world, you’re likely to recognize most of the names. There’s Anthony Pettis, Donald Cerrone, Justin Gaethje… wait, what?
Yes, that’s right, Justin Gaethje. Gaethje is the lightweight champion of the World Series of Fighting, run by “Sugar” Ray Sefo and probably the No. 3 mixed martial arts organization behind the UFC and Bellator MMA. While fighters like Pettis, Cerrone, Rafael dos Anjos and Bellator’s Will Brooks and Michael Chandler tend to grab the headlines, Gaethje has compiled a 14-0 record, grabbed the WSOF lightweight title and scored eight knockout victories in his last nine fights. The one exception was a split decision victory over former UFC lightweight Melvin Guillard on a WSOF card last year.
The fight with Guillard was originally billed as a title contest, but it was changed to a non-title affair after Guillard failed to make weight (the guy just can’t get out of his own way, can he?). That didn’t change the fact that Gaethje and Guillard engaged in a brutal slugfest of their own, with Gaethje still walking out the victor.
Gaethje’s most recent title defense came on March 28 when he notched a TKO victory over Luis Palomino. Gaethje looks to be in no danger of losing his belt anytime soon, which perhaps begs the hypothetical: Should he jump to the UFC and engage in some truly amazing fights?
The UFC has no shortage of lightweight fighters who would create excellent match-ups for Gaethje. Here are the top five picks:
1. Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone: Really, does this need any explanation? Cerrone loves to scrap and is always aiming for a knockout victory. He engaged in his own slugfest with Guillard, much like Gaethje. A good old-fashioned brawl between Cerrone and Gaethje could be one for the ages.
2. Anthony Pettis: During his victory over Palomino, Gaethje showed a few unorthodox moves we usually see from Pettis, including a cartwheel kick. Imagine if Pettis tried the Matrix kick that helped him secure a victory over Benson Henderson in World Extreme Cagefighting. Better yet, imagine if Gaethje tried that himself. A bout between Gaethje and Pettis might allow us to see moves never performed before in the Octagon.
3. Gilbert Melendez: Here’s another fighter who loves to trade punches. Melendez was part of what many consider one of the greatest UFC fights of all time, when he defeated Diego Sanchez in 2013. Melendez’s fights with Josh Thomson in Strikeforce are well known too. It’s hard to see a fight between Melendez and Gaethje going any way except for those two standing toe-to-toe in the middle of the Octagon raining punches on each other.
4. Khabib Nurmagomedov: Like Gaethje, Nurmagomedov is undefeated. He’s also considered the next big thing at lightweight and is expected to receive a title shot if he defeats Cerrone at UFC 187 in May. Nurmagomedov’s last three victories have been by unanimous decision, including one over current UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos. That probably wouldn’t do for Gaethje, who might help prove if Nurmagomedov is the real deal by forcing him to really go for the finish — because that’s exactly what Gaethje would do.
5. Rafael dos Anjos: The current UFC lightweight champion was a heavy underdog to Pettis last month, but he won the belt by completely smothering Pettis and taking away his trademark offense. Could he do the same to Gaethje? Would Gaethje’s knockout power be neutralized by Brazilian’s takedowns and jiu-jitsu? Would dos Anjos be content grinding out another decision victory? A fight with Gaethje would present a fascinating mix of styles.
It will probably be a long time before we see any of these fights, if we see them at all. Gaethje seems firmly entrenched as the WSOF’s lightweight champion, and I’m sure the organization has no plans on letting him get away. But if Gaethje ever made it to the grand stage of the UFC? Oh, the show he could put on inside the Octagon.
World Series of Fighting lightweight champion Justin Gaethje is known for his tendency to brawl — but this was just ridiculous.
Gaethje (14-0) recorded his second title defense on Saturday, defeating Luis Palomino via third-round TKO in a wild brawl inside Comerica Theatre in Phoenix.
The 155-pound championship tilt played out like a button-mashing video game. Gaethje, 26, relentlessly pressured Palomino (23-10) from the opening bell and the veteran was up to the challenge, returning fire and hurting Gaethje on several occasions.
After more than 13 minutes of haymakers, Gaethje’s leg kicks proved to be the difference. A hobbled Palomino went down twice in the third frame due to kicks, eventually succumbing to strikes on the ground at the 3:57 mark.
“That is the toughest man I have ever faced,” Gaethje said. “I knew that coming in and I trained harder than I ever have before. I’m just happy I got someone who wanted to fight me.
“[I was hurt] a couple times. I came for stitches and I got some. I’m as happy as I can be.”
The sheer magnitude of Gaethje’s pressure threw Palomino off-balance at times. Gaethje continually put Palomino’s back on the fence and opened up with uppercuts and straight rights. The 34-year-old Palomino’s chin held up, though, and he made Gaethje pay for his aggression with hard counterpunches.
Several times in the opening round, Gaethje was visibly hurt by Palomino’s hands. He was forced to clinch at times and his mouthpiece went flying at one point from the force of a right.
In the closing seconds of the opening round, Gaethje jumped into a wild cartwheel kick that missed badly.
Palomino established his counter punching more in the second round, slipping Gaethje’s offense and ripping back with two- and three-punch combinations. Quietly, Gaethje continued to score outside leg kicks at the end of exchanges, which would prove to be crucial later in the fight.
By the start of the third, Gaethje wore a cut over his right eye, while Palomino dealt with heavy swelling under his left.
It was clear early in the round the challenger’s lead left leg was done. He fell to the ground following an outside kick and struggled to get back to his feet. His mobility was shot and his punches didn’t carry the same weight as they did in the first.
The Phoenix crowd went nuts as Gaethje, who is from Safford, Arizona, put the finishing touches on his performance, sealing the TKO victory with elbows from top position.
“I’m disappointed in myself,” Palomino said. “Don’t take anything away from him. You guys have a great champion out here, man. You have to love the guy. He fights with all his heart and puts it all out there. He’s the man.
“In the second round, I started turning it on and my hand was gone. My right ankle is gone. Not putting up excuses. He’s a champion for a reason and it was his night.”
Fighting out of Grudge Training Center in Denver, Gaethje is now 7-0 in WSOF. He won the title in January 2014 and recorded his first defense against Nick Newell at WSOF 11 in July.
He was scheduled to defend it again opposite Melvin Guillard in November, but the fight was downgraded to a non-title bout after Guillard missed weight. Gaethje won via split decision.
World Series of Fighting lightweight champion Justin Gaethje is known for his tendency to brawl — but this was just ridiculous.
Gaethje (14-0) recorded his second title defense on Saturday, defeating Luis Palomino via third-round TKO in a wild brawl inside Comerica Theatre in Phoenix.
The 155-pound championship tilt played out like a button-mashing video game. Gaethje, 26, relentlessly pressured Palomino (23-10) from the opening bell and the veteran was up to the challenge, returning fire and hurting Gaethje on several occasions.
After more than 13 minutes of haymakers, Gaethje’s leg kicks proved to be the difference. A hobbled Palomino went down twice in the third frame due to kicks, eventually succumbing to strikes on the ground at the 3:57 mark.
“That is the toughest man I have ever faced,” Gaethje said. “I knew that coming in and I trained harder than I ever have before. I’m just happy I got someone who wanted to fight me.
“[I was hurt] a couple times. I came for stitches and I got some. I’m as happy as I can be.”
The sheer magnitude of Gaethje’s pressure threw Palomino off-balance at times. Gaethje continually put Palomino’s back on the fence and opened up with uppercuts and straight rights. The 34-year-old Palomino’s chin held up, though, and he made Gaethje pay for his aggression with hard counterpunches.
Several times in the opening round, Gaethje was visibly hurt by Palomino’s hands. He was forced to clinch at times and his mouthpiece went flying at one point from the force of a right.
In the closing seconds of the opening round, Gaethje jumped into a wild cartwheel kick that missed badly.
Palomino established his counter punching more in the second round, slipping Gaethje’s offense and ripping back with two- and three-punch combinations. Quietly, Gaethje continued to score outside leg kicks at the end of exchanges, which would prove to be crucial later in the fight.
By the start of the third, Gaethje wore a cut over his right eye, while Palomino dealt with heavy swelling under his left.
It was clear early in the round the challenger’s lead left leg was done. He fell to the ground following an outside kick and struggled to get back to his feet. His mobility was shot and his punches didn’t carry the same weight as they did in the first.
The Phoenix crowd went nuts as Gaethje, who is from Safford, Arizona, put the finishing touches on his performance, sealing the TKO victory with elbows from top position.
“I’m disappointed in myself,” Palomino said. “Don’t take anything away from him. You guys have a great champion out here, man. You have to love the guy. He fights with all his heart and puts it all out there. He’s the man.
“In the second round, I started turning it on and my hand was gone. My right ankle is gone. Not putting up excuses. He’s a champion for a reason and it was his night.”
Fighting out of Grudge Training Center in Denver, Gaethje is now 7-0 in WSOF. He won the title in January 2014 and recorded his first defense against Nick Newell at WSOF 11 in July.
He was scheduled to defend it again opposite Melvin Guillard in November, but the fight was downgraded to a non-title bout after Guillard missed weight. Gaethje won via split decision.
