Outside Source
Justin Gaethje entered the White House as the UFC‘s biggest underdog and left as the biggest winner of the night. After ending Ilia Topuria‘s undefeated streak, Gaethje took home his belt and two bonuses.
The American’s ground coach, Jorge Santiago, spoke with Sherdog.com on Monday about the victory and revealed interesting details about what went on behind the scenes at UFC White House. Having won belts in organizations such as Sengoku and Strikeforce, the Brazilian revealed that he was moved by the show.
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“It was a unique experience. There will never be a show like this. I never imagined seeing the political capital of the USA closed to our sport. Everything was approved by the Secret Service. After all, they had already tried to assassinate the president twice, so it was an impressive level of care. We would pass through a gate and there was an FBI clearance; when we got in the car we couldn’t talk to the agents or we would have to go back and do it all again,” said the Brazilian. “When we arrived at the White House, I simply couldn’t believe it. I kept looking at those walls full of stories that we’re used to seeing in so many movies. I felt like an alien there. I just kept thinking that our sport had managed to reach places we never imagined.”
The Game Plan for Topuria
Santiago revealed that from the beginning of the camp, jabs were the key to the game plan to neutralize the Georgian-Spaniard.
“We knew that Topuria was going to move forward trying to fight in the pocket as always,” Santiago said. “This work of controlling the distance with jabs was brilliant because it opened up Topuria in the first round. The idea was to use jabs before he felt comfortable in the pocket, then look for the clinch and angled using uppercuts. That was the strategy to neutralize Topuria’s close-range fighting, and it was successful.”
The Brazilian made a point to credit the team’s head coach for Gaethje’s success.
“Trevor Wittman is a brilliant guy,” he said. “I’ll tell you, having gone through ATT, Blackzilians, I’ve trained with some of the greatest coaches this sport has ever seen, and this guy is really very special. He takes something positive from every training session and makes the student shine.”
A black belt under Ricardo Libório, Santiago revealed that Gaethje was very prepared on the ground for this fight.
“We worked very hard for this fight. I’m blessed that he believes in my work through Kamaru [Usman], and he’s evolved a lot,” Santiago said. That [brabo] choke he locked in on Topuria, he was landing on everyone in training.”
Retirement?
Regarding retirement, Santiago believes Gaethje will defend his belt before all is said and done.
“Actually, his plan was to retire after the victory over Paddy Pimblett, but now after this historic achievement, I think he’ll take a break and come back in a fight that makes a lot of sense for him,” Santiago said. “I don’t know if it will be against the winner of Conor McGregor vs. Max Holloway, a rematch with Charles Oliveira for the unification of the BMF and lightweight titles, or a rematch with Topuria himself, but it will certainly have to be something very big.”
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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