Ultimate Fighting Championship fighters before, coach Marcos da
Matta firmly has his finger on the pulse of the sport.
After injuring his arm and losing his belt to Joshua Van,
Alexandre
Pantoja became one of the most interested men watching the
co-main event of UFC 328. Not surprisingly, the Brazilian and his
coach “Parrumpa” da Matta watched the event from the front row. Da
Matta spoke with Sherdog about the future of his athlete, the
successes of a newly minted champion and a whether being a backup
fighter is a good idea.
“I particularly wanted Van to win because I really wanted this
rematch,” explained to Sherdog.
In the opinion of the American Top Team coach, Van vs. Tatsuro
Taira provided excellent material for study.
“We were able to see a lot in these almost five rounds,” the coach
analyzed. “Both exposed themselves a lot, showing both strengths
and weaknesses. I liked what I saw.”
Waiting in the wings, Pantoja is already fully recovered and is now
just waiting for the UFC to schedule the rematch.
“His arm is already 100%, but he still wouldn’t be 100% to fight
next week, for example. We need some time to do a championship
camp, and I believe that fight will happen around August or
September. Now it depends more on the UFC and Joshua Van
than on Pantoja,” he stated.
Flowers for Strickland
Speaking about the main event of UFC 328 between Khamzat
Chimaev and Sean
Strickland for the middleweight title, the ATT coach criticized
those who are taking away the merits of the new champion. If the
coach had one major favor that contributed to Chimaev losing, it
would be his massive weight cut reportedly over 40 pounds.
“People are practically saying that Chimaev lost because of the
weight cut. Hold on,” da Matta exclaimed. “What about Strickland?
There was a guy there who made Chimaev tired and, in my opinion,
won that fight in the last two minutes of a 25-minute war. So,
Strickland deserves all the credit.”
“Parrumpa” recounted that former Bellator MMA champion Johnny
Eblen had been training with Strickland. Based on those
sessions, the coach believed that Chimaev would have difficulty
keeping Strickland down for long. That proved to be true.
“In my opinion, Eblen is among the top 10 middleweights in the
world and trains here at ATT. He said he trained with Strickland
and that it was very difficult to keep him on the ground. I confess
that I even thought Chimaev would win, but because of these reports
from Eblen, I knew it would be a very close fight,” da Matta
continued.
‘Being a substitute sucks’
The coach weighed in on the upcoming event at the White House on
June 14. There are only seven matches on the billing, and the
difficulty of finding a replacement on this notice that can pass
security to go through that building. Arman
Tsarukyan volunteered to be ready to step in should something
happen in the Ilia
Topuria-Justin
Gaethje main attraction, including reaching championship
weight.
“He’s already training. He’s in Los Angeles now helping his
partner, David. I haven’t actually talked to him about it yet. I
perfectly understand that he has to accept it to get back on good
terms with the company, but I personally like a camp for a specific
athlete. Being a substitute sucks. You can fight two fighters, you
have to make weight, you don’t even get the show money purse. But
at this moment I understand that he needs to do it and because he’s
always training, it’s still a very good opportunity for him,” Da
Matta concluded.