Welterweight Miguel Baeza entered the UFC with a 7-0 record, and in his three big show fights to date, stopped all his opponents in Round 2, winning performance bonuses in the last two. Caramel Thunder trains at MMA Masters alongside the ever-controversial Colby Covington.
Colby Covington, he’s a good guy, said Baeza at the post-fight press conference. I know that everybody’s gonna get on him with all the stuff he’s saying. He’s a different person in the gym. He’s only pushed us to get better.
The simple fact is that MMA fans thrill to trash talk, so much of it is manufactured. Covington’s heel schtick is a natural and rational extension of that. So maybe Colby Covington is a case of, “I have met the enemy and he is us.”
As Baeza won his first two UFC fights via strikes, the assumption on the social network was that he was a striker. However, in the co-main of UFC on ESPN 18 on Saturday, the BJJ black belt arm triangled Takashi Sato, to earn his first submission win.
I shouldn’t be reading some of the stuff on the Internet, but it’s kind of hard not to, he said. They were like, ‘What belt is this guy Baeza? Take him down, it’ll be a wrap.’ I’ve been doing jiu-jitsu for over a decade now. I was able to show off that I’m more than just a standup guy.
“I didn’t want to rush it. It’s something my coaches were telling me, ‘Be patient, don’t force it.’ They’re the coaches for a reason. They called it. I caught him but I didn’t want to push too hard. It came in the second.
Now it’s back to the gym.
Trust me, I’m gonna find faults. We’re gonna celebrate for a couple days but then afterwards it’s gonna be right back to business, said Baeza. I was happy and then I just remembered, ‘Oh God, here comes the criticism.’ It’s gonna be a welcome thing.
This was supposed to be our fourth fight this year … We had these full training camps. It just didn’t happen. My rookie year in the UFC – typical. It’s never the easy road. We’ve always got to climb to get to where we want to get. It’s the best way to do it.
A part of me wants to get short-term goals, get that next W. But the long-term goal is to get that title. Whoever is in front of me is in front of me – it doesn’t matter if it’s Top 15, Top 10, bottom 20. Whoever it is, I’m coming after you.
h/t Tristen Critchfield for Sherdog
