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.”