It was the mixed martial arts equivalent of Babe Ruth calling his shot in the 1932 World Series. Well, maybe not that big, but when Travis Lutter was asked for a prediction on his bout with Patrick Cote at November’s ‘The Ultimate Fighter 4 Finale’, he was not only confident, he was dead-on in his take on the bout.
“We’ll circle, I’ll take him down, and the fight’s over,” said Lutter, and 2:18 into the fight, the prophecy came true as a brutally efficient display of groundfighting forced Cote to submit from an armbar, and just as quickly, the South Dakota native had not only put a few bucks in his pocket (a $100,000 prize and a $100,000 Xyience contract), but he put himself one win away from being the UFC middleweight champion.
Of course, there’s one obstacle in his way, and it’s a quite formidable one – current 185-pound boss Anderson Silva. Should we get our betting slips out for another prediction?
“This fight is gonna be very similar,” said Lutter. “Anderson’s definitely better on the ground than Cote, but it’s basically the same plan – we’re gonna go out there, circle, I’m gonna try to get my takedown, take him down, and beat him up and go from there. I don’t expect it to be as quick of a fight as with Patrick, but it sure could be.”
Bold words, but ones that don’t come off as arrogant coming from the 33-year old Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt. It’s just a realization that comes with years of toil on the mat, and the knowledge that when he gets you to the ground, suddenly the fight changes in his favor.
“I guess it’s just time,” said Lutter, when asked the exact moment when he knew that his ground game was at a level that allowed him to compete with anyone in the world on even terms. “There was never an exact moment, but I had a good year last year and I feel pretty confident. If I can take you down, I’m gonna beat you. That’s my attitude, and every fight becomes a wrestling match at that point. If I can take you down, then I’m probably gonna beat you. If I can’t, then it’s probably gonna be a longer night for me. The guys that gave me the hardest time were wrestlers, not strikers. It should be good though. I’m gonna go out there, take him down, and do what I do.”
What Lutter does best is submit people, something evident to UFC fans as he took out Cote and Scott Smith during his stint on TUF4, wins that were sandwiched around a semifinal decision victory over Pete Sell. What do all three have in common? All are known primarily as strikers. Lutter’s other UFC victory? A one-punch knockout of, you guessed it, another striker in Marvin Eastman at UFC 50 in 2004. In fact, Lutter’s only UFC defeats have come to fighters with wrestling as their base – Matt Lindland and Trevor Prangley.
So where does that leave Anderson Silva, a BJJ black belt who nonetheless is a fearsome striker with the type of speed and accuracy that can take even the most disciplined fighter out of his game?
“I think he’s probably the best pound for pound striker in MMA,” admits Lutter. “He’s a very dangerous striker, and very dangerous the whole fight. He’s also got a jiu-jitsu black belt. Do I think his jiu-jitsu’s as good as mine? No, but I’m sure he’s dangerous, with his wrestling being the thing he’s lacking the most. So he’s gonna be fighting me from his back. That’s the way I look at this fight. I’m gonna go out there and put him on his back and we’re not gonna try to play with his standup. Granted, every fight starts on its feet, but I’m gonna take him down and do what I do.”
Of course, to get to that point, Lutter may have to eat some incoming fire or at least be able to get his respect from Silva with his own striking. Well, Eastman certainly won’t be questioning the power of the Texas resident.
“People forget that you have four-ounce gloves on and I happen to hit real hard,” said Lutter. “That’s a possibility, but will I bank on it? Hell no. I didn’t bank on it in that fight (against Eastman) – it just kinda happened. But you don’t see a lot of one-punch knockouts. You’ll see Anderson deliver six or seven strikes to these guys in a row, unanswered, and then they fall down. So you will get a little bit of respect from the guy you’re fighting. Maybe not from the guy who’s watching, but the guy standing across the ring from you knows that when you got a little bit of power that’s he’s definitely gonna look for it.”
And when you look at it from those diverse angles, this isn’t simply a showcase for the new champion – it’s a fight, and one that can change Lutter’s life forever. Does facing the most feared 185-pound fighter in the world change the way he approaches things?
“I’m excited about this, but there are no easy fights,” he said. “If you’re fighting Joe Blow, it’s still a tough fight because you can lose in so many different ways. Am I gonna lose against Joe Blow? No, but you’re still gonna train hard and do all the things that you usually do. In that regard it’s still all business as usual, but I’m really excited about this one. It seems like every time you’re fighting it’s for all the marbles, so I always put that pressure on myself to win every fight and I’ll just go in there and do the things that I usually do.”
That’s been the key to his success so far, and why his life hasn’t been thrown into upheaval by the sudden celebrity that comes with winning a television reality show.
“It’s really not that different,” he admits. “Everything’s basically the same – training for fights, running my school, and doing the usual. People recognize me a little bit more, but not like (TUF4 welterweight winner Matt) Serra or some of the other guys I talked to get recognized. Going to the UFC of course is a huge difference. When I was there, I was signing autographs for hours, so that’s a different experience, but basically, life’s the same.”
Well, at least until February 4th. Because if he can upset Anderson Silva the night before at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, life may never be the same for Travis Lutter, and the era of the striker may quickly transition into that of the ground fighter.
“If you look at Matt Hughes, he probably dominated the same way I plan on winning this fight, by taking people down and beating them up,” said Lutter. “GSP (Georges St. Pierre), I think the best thing he does is wrestle. He’s got good striking and good jiu-jitsu, but he’s got great wrestling. Now you’ve got Chuck (Liddell) and Anderson, who knock people out. Tim Sylvia is also a standup fighter, but there are usually a few of us at the top of the game who are taking people down and beating them up too.”
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