UFC: Tony Ferguson’s coach Eddie Bravo admits it was a ‘mistake for me to go in there’ in Justin Gaethje fight
- Jiu-jitsu coach Bravo reveals he ‘froze’ when Ferguson’s boxing coach asked him to enter Octagon and give ‘El Cucuy’ advice before fifth round
- Bravo says it ‘crossed my mind’ to throw in the towel ‘but I never would have done it’
Tony Ferguson’s jiu-jitsu coach Eddie Bravo has admitted it was a “mistake” for him to enter the Octagon before the fifth round against Justin Gaethje at UFC 249.
Bravo spoke to a bloodied and bruised “El Cucuy” on his stool and advised him to try an imanari roll with Ferguson getting beat up badly on his feet. Referee Herb Dean stepped in with a minute and change left to award Gaethje a TKO win and the interim lightweight title on May 9.
In an appearance on UFC commentator Joe Rogan’s podcast, Bravo admitted it “crossed my mind” to throw in the towel in the fourth and fifth round. “But I would never have done it,” he said. “I thought, ‘I know you’. I have never been a head MMA coach in my whole life. Never wanted to be, that’s not me. I’m not Trevor Wittman, that guy is amazing. Greg Jackson, Duke Roufus. That’s a whole other level, head coach – that’s the guy that should be talking to the fighter that’s sitting down.
“I’m the wide receiver coach. I’m the guy that just throws in s*** on the side, especially in a stand-up fight. I shouldn’t have been mic’d because I knew that was going to be a stand-up fight. If the fight was gonna go to the ground, if it was a Khabib fight, yeah maybe it makes sense for television to mic me. They were mic’ing me up, but I was just there for emotional support because this was going to be a stand-up war. ”
Bravo had been a key component in Ferguson’s training camp as they initially prepared to fight UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov on April 18. That match-up got scrapped for a fifth time, on this occasion because of the coronavirus pandemic, with the event and Ferguson’s opponent rescheduled.