"I think he handled himself really good...There is no doubt in my mind that this guy has the condition to go. He handles himself really well. He's just so explosive. I would like to see him get rounds in, but we have to find the right guy to do that with," stated trainer Trevor Wittman as he talked about Shane Carwin's impressive knockout victory over Christian Wellisch during his debut at UFC 84. Check out what else he had to say about Carwin, boxing jr. middleweight champion Verno Phillips, their future plans and more.
PC: Congratulations on Shane Carwin's big win at UFC 84.
TW: I appreciate it.
PC: What was the gameplan going into that fight with Christian Wellisch?
TW: He came to me about 9 months ago and this is our second fight together and he was a complete wrestler. He had come to me for striking so we took time off and we had not asked for a fight for a while to really work on his striking. He went out there and he had the jitters and he kind of looked a little jittery at first, but he started moving his head there towards the end and he got his confidence up. He didn't even want to shoot on him. He just wanted to stand with him and he landed a picture perfect right hand.
PC: Everyone talks about the UFC jitters. It was Shane's debut so how were his nerves going into that fight?
TW: I didn't think he had any. He said he had a little nerve afterwards, but he's a competitor. He's had like 400 wrestling matches and he's a real confident guy and a super athletic guy. I think if he had the jitters, he wasn't going to let it show. Definitely going out in the UFC in front of that many people is a big thing, but the first fight in the UFC, it's not that many people in the crowd so I don't know how much that had to do with it. Getting out there, it's just like any fighter, the first round is always a dangerous round because you're shaking everything out. He controlled himself really good and did well. I think he handled himself really good.
PC: You always like to get that quick knockout, but with that being his first fight in the UFC, would you have liked to see him put in a little more time so you could evaluate him more?
TW: Oh definitely! That's another thing with Shane, he's so explosive. I mean, he has 9 fights and none of them have been past 1:50. That was my main concern when I first got with him. He was 285 pounds when he came to me and he came into this fight 252 pounds so that shows you what I'm doing with him. I'm getting this big guy to loose this water weight and if you look at pictures from his last couple of fights and you look at pictures from this fight and see where his water weight level is, he had a full 6-pack; we did full core training. We were running Red Rock 3 times a week; that's about a five mile run. We do all sorts of sprints. Every other day we ran sprints. I mean, we were really planning on going the distance and I believe this guy can. He spars with all of my professionals. He was sparring with DeAndrey Abron. He went 8 rounds with DeAndrey straight. There is no doubt in my mind that this guy has the condition to go. He handles himself really well. He's just so explosive. I would like to see him get rounds in, but we have to find the right guy to do that with.
PC: The heavyweight division isn't one of the deepest in the UFC. What would you like to see the UFC do with him next?
TW: It's kind of like boxing. The heavyweight division in both sports is kind of wide open. My main thing is I want to see him built a little bit. What I mean by built is to not give him guys whoÂ…you know, we don't want easy guys, but I want to see guys that are going to last. We want a strong, tough guy that may not be the most technical on the ground or standing up, but we want someone tough; someone that I know he could go rounds with. That will put a little more confidence in me and in him. I'm confident of him going the distance, but when you have a fighter that goes the distance, it's like they believe in themselves more. In boxing, you want guys to know they're not 4-round fighters. If they go 12 rounds one fight, then they know, "Shit, I can go 12 rounds every fight." You always wonder how you are going to do in those fights. In MMA, it's the same thing. You want to be able to know that you can go three 5-minute rounds.
PC: Trevor, you are involved in both sports so I'm sure you appreciate both crafts. The obvious is in MMA, you have more ways to finish fights, but where do you draw the line between the 2 sports?
TW: The thing is I feel you can lose in just as many ways in boxing. I know you could go to the ground and stuff like that, so it's more dimensions. There is no doubt in my mind that you can have a boxer go into MMA and with the right amount of training, not just be looking to say, "I'm going to box this guy and take him out." Of course they'll be looking to take them down, but boxers are athletes and so are MMA guys. If they take their training serious and realize this is not a one-dimensional sport, I think any MMA guy can get into boxing if they take the right steps and do the right training as a boxer would because they're athletes. You see guys leave the NFL and they do good as a boxer. If they were groomed as an amateur to do it, they could make it to the top. As a trainer, I just look to go out there and have fun with these athletes. I love all styles of fighting, whether it's thumb wrestling, boxing or MMA. My background is boxing, but I love it all man.
PC: Lyoto Machida is a different type of MMA fighter. Some people consider his style fit for boxing or kickboxing. Do you agree with that or do you enjoy what he does inside of the cage?
TW: I love his attitude; his persona being around him and being in the same locker room with him was great, but style-wise, he's a technician. Everybody in the sport is always going to bore someone or you're not going to like the way a certain fighters does things if you're not like that Mike Tyson guy that's not going to come out and knock everybody out. He's going to keep the true fans. The true fans of the sport are going to love this guy. I seen a few things, like with some of his kicks, he wasn't turning them over, but then he comes out and lands a perfect knee to the liver. He's a great technician with good strength. He could be a finisher. He finished guys before this fight. He's just a guy who is a really smart fighter. He reminds me of a Paulie Malignaggi. He's got a lot more pop than Malignaggi and he does have finishing ability. I was kind of bored watching the fight, but technique-wise, you can't be bored with it. He's super fast and he does things with his hands down and that annoys people, but he gets away with it. At some level, I would like to see him tested because I want to see him improve more and I think he can improve. I want to see somebody that's going to be able to cut him off because Tito was coming straight at him and reaching with hooks. When you're doing stuff like that, it's real easy to counter. I enjoyed the fight and it got better as the fight went on. I can understand why some people find it boring.
PC: You also have Verno Phillips, who just beat Cory Spinks for the title. What would you like to see him do next?
TW: The main thing is Verno has been fighting for 20 years and this is his 4th world title. I just want to see him get what he's been looking for this whole time and that's a good money fight. I really could put Verno up against anybody, especially since he's been back these last 7 years I've been with him. If we've lost fights, it's been within a point or two and never more and that's been against the Ike Quarteys and Kassim Oumas. He just keeps going. I just want to see him get a good fight and pray that these guys don't sleep on him. Everybody sleeps on Verno and we don't want to hear the excuses after we win fights like we did against Cory Spinks. Every time Verno wins fights, it's, "We weren't training good, we lost our trainer." In the early part of his career, they said he was beating guys at the end of their career. Here we have Verno at the end of his career beating the young guy. Give us the credit for what we did. We trained hard, we looked at the tapes and we had a good gameplan going into that fight. We knew what we had to do to shut Spinks down. We wanted to counter him when he takes breaks. He did a good job of keeping Cory in the middle of the ring and then putting him against the ropes and throwing combinations.
PC: He beat him in St. Louis too.
TW: Yeah, I think that somewhat helped us. I was nervous going to St. Louis before the fight, but as the fight was going on, I noticed Spinks wanted to sit back and counter and the crowd would start booing and force him to fight our fight. The boos also helped the judges make the right call because I had Verno winning the fight pretty much how the judges had it. I had him winning by about 2 rounds. At this point with Verno, it's any fight that's going to do him well off so once he looks to hang his gloves up, it's been a fun ride. Whether he has 3 fights left in him or 10, I'm here for the ride and watch him do his thing. He's a pleasure to work with.
PC: Thanks for your time Trevor. I look forward to speaking with you again soon. Is there anything you would like to say in closing?
TW: I want to thank my only sponsor. Usually trainers don't have sponsors, but Grudge Fight Gear. They're a good company that's coming out and the good thing about them is that they are supporting boxing and MMA; they want to support all fighters. They're really cool and everyone should look for these fighters coming out of Colorado. They come out of this high altitude and everyone needs to watch out for them.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]