"The elbows were clearly not to the back of his head. The last move, where everyone thought he used an illegal pile driver, he was actually picking him up and scooping him to throw him out with his hips and Thales went against it. It looked really bad, but it's actually a move that you could use and put someone on their back so that you could mount them. Thales wasn't going to let Nate do that, so like I said, that just makes for great controversy," stated world-class trainer Trevor Wittman as he shared his thoughts on Nate Marquardts controversial split-decision loss to Thales Leites at UFC 85. Check out what else he had to say as he talks more about the fighters he trains, including Marquardt, Roger Huerta and jr. middleweight champion Verno Philips.
PC: How are you doing man?
TW: I'm doing good man. I'm just sitting back enjoying life.
PC: How was the trip out to London for UFC 85?
TW: It was good man. The people in London were great. I've been to Germany and Poland and we have had some rough times. I was worried about going back to Europe, but London was great man.
PC: What do you have going on right now?
TW: Right now I'll be heading out to Vegas to meet my kid Manuel Perez. He's the former WBC Youth Champion and former WBC Continental Americas Champion. He's fighting Pacquiao's good buddy. He's one of Manny's sparring partners from the Philippines. It's going to be a good match that I'm looking forward to; an 8-rounder.
PC: How about in the MMA field?
TW: I have Roger Huerta, and Nate Marquardt got back in the gym today. He's looking forward to getting back to it. Nate is still disappointed about the second point deduction. The main thing is, and I think he understands and I definitely understand, that people are starting to follow Nate a lot more. When he first came into the UFC, his first couple of fights, people said he was boring. I told him I think that was because of me because I had him so defensively strong that we were taking things away from other guys. We were able to shut a lot of things down that other people were doing. It was making for boring fights. After his fight with Silva, you know, we went out there with a gameplan and he was doing great standing and he made a decision to shoot on Silva and he was like, "Why did I shoot on him when I was doing so well standing with him?" he caught that left hand when he went to shoot on him and then afterwards, we talked and he was like, "You know what T, we need to work on techniques and a gameplan that's going to help me out, but from now on, I'm going to be like a bomb in there." In his last 2 fights with Jeremy Horn and Thales Leitas, you could definitely see a different Nate. He went back to a lot of old stuff that he was doing before me and now he's just going at guys. He's fighting towards his strengths and he's so strong and technically good that his real techniques come out when he's strong.
PC: Nate has never been known as a dirty fighter. Are you surprised at how much backlash he received from the Leitas fight?
TW: You know what, the backlash is expected. When it's controversy, that just makes the fans want to see it again. They want to see more of it; it's not biting someone's ear off, you know? When he landed the knee, it was right in our corner and Nate's body popped out and Leitas's body pops up like he was going to get up to a standing position. In one replay, you can see his knee come up, but then it goes right back to the ground when Nate was coming back in. Nate was looking for him to stand and that's one of those things. You have to credit Thales for getting back in there and being a warrior for wanting to go back in there after being rocked with that knee; more credit to that guy. When you're in there fighting, and if you're not a fighter or have never been in a fight before, but when you're in there fighting, sometimes you just make a decision and you look back and say, "Damn, why did I do that?" But you're fighting. The elbows were clearly not to the back of his head. The last move, where everyone thought he used an illegal pile driver, he was actually picking him up and scooping him to throw him out with his hips and Thales went against it. It looked really bad, but it's actually a move that you could use and put someone on their back so that you could mount them. Thales wasn't going to let Nate do that, so like I said, that just makes for great controversy. It makes people want to watch Nate. He's going to be explosive and if he gets any points taken away in his next contest, it's not going to be dirty or intentional. He's out there trying to take people out.
PC: Andre Berto just won the WBC title. What do you think of him as a fighter?
TW: I think he's very explosive. I didn't get a chance to watch his fight Saturday because I was at a local event, but I think he has great potential. I think people are ready to see him step up and start fighting some of these big name guys. There are a lot of guys in that division, Mosley, Judah, Cotto and Paul Williams, so he better get ready.
PC: What did you think of Floyd Mayweather's retirement?
TW: I love him technique-wise, but I think he actually did a lot of us a favor because I didn't want to see the rematch with De La Hoya. The first one was a sparring session. Floyd can make money doing other things, as he showed with the wrestling event, so why not. You have these guys come from these low income families and if he could go and make that kind of money doing other things and not getting punched in the head, more power to him; fuck, I would too. I loved watching him fight though. I would like to see Verno get a fight with De La Hoya or any big payday. I could remember when De La Hoya was like 15-0 and him and Verno shared a locker room and now Verno is still around so that says something. We would love to get that fight.
PC: I'll get you out of here with this question. Verno is in this division so I'm sure you watched carefully. What did you think of Sergio Mora beating Vernon Forrest?
TW: Man, I'll just say everyone has a bad day. Vernon had a very bad day. He just couldn't get off, but hopefully he will rebound and we could make that fight happen.
PC: Thanks for your time as always Trevor. Keep doing what you're doing my man. Is there anything you would like to say in closing?
TW: Thank you for the interview and just tell people to keep an eye out for these Colorado fighters.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]