Here is an article I did which gives a little more insight on Chris Gutierrez and his take on things before his fight tonight against Timur. Should be a good scrap.
WSOF 28: Chris Gutierrez, cut from a different cloth.
2/18/2016
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Josh Connor
Tucked just fourty-five miles northeast of Dallas in the Texas Blackland Prairies sits the small town of
Greenville, Texas. Sporting a population of just 26,000 people, if you continue to head downtown on the corner of Lee and Wesley, you will see
Chop Shop MMA, home to newly signed
World Series of Fighting (WSOF) bantamweight prospect
Chris “El Guapo” Gutierrez (8-1-1).
Gutierrez is riding the momentum of a six fight win streak and has a reputation as one of the top MMA prospects coming out of the
Lone Star state. On Saturday night under the bright lights of
Garden Grove, California, the small town fighter looks to make a splash in the WSOF bantamweight division as he squares off with gritty Russian fighter
Timur “Lucky” Valiev (10-1). Valiev is one of the many Russian fighters hailing from the talent rich region of
Dagestan who have taken WSOF by storm. Despite Valiev boasting a 10 fight win streak and not tasting defeat in nearly four years, the 24 year old Gutierrez remains confident in the skillset he and trainer
Rob Stucker have been sharpening together over the years at Chop Shop.
Timur Valiev (Photo Credit: WSOF)
“
Timur, he is there for a reason himself. Four or five fights into the promotion, and he is undefeated in it. But, I don’t think he has fought anyone like me. I’m cut from a
different cloth than the people he has fought. I just don’t think he has faced
adversity. If you look at film on the other guys that he has fought, they have never hit him back. They’re like afraid to engage with him; they don’t know how to judge distance. They let him dictate the fight. I’m different than that, and you will see Saturday.”
For Gutierrez, leading up to this fight he has been working on all aspects of his MMA game. One of his favorite aspects of
Chop Shop MMA is the "family feel" of the gym, and the ability of the trainers to mold him into his own type of fighter.
Photo Credit: Chris Gutierrez Facebook
"I believe in what I get taught, and I believe in myself so I’m pretty confident. I guess we will find out Saturday. I think I stack up pretty well; I hold myself up to a high standard. I see myself in
title contention, but of course, business is business and I have to go in here and do what I have to do in this fight first before I can talk about anything else."
With a victory on Saturday night, if not too banged up, you can expect to find Gutierrez right back in the gym Monday morning helping teammates get ready for their fights and continuing to hone his skills.
Continual improvement is his watchword, and you can tell it lies at the very core of his being as a fighter. Pointing to the legacy of fighters like
Anderson Silva and WSOF President
Ray Sefo, Gutierrez looks to forge his own lasting imprint on the sport which he feels will be built within the walls of Chop Shop MMA with trainer Rob Stucker for many years to come.
"I know there is always room for improvement. There is always someone better than you that you’re going to have to try and beat. That’s the way I look at it. You are in the sport to be the best. There is no sense to get into a sport, to make it a career, if you are not going to be the best. My goal is to be the greatest. I want to be remembered a legend."
The path to becoming a future legend starts Saturday night against Timur Valiev as Gutierrez makes his walkout to the
WSOF 28 cage. It’s a walkout where at the forefront of Gutierrez' mind will be the friends and family in Greenville, TX who have made this small town dream become a reality.
"When I am walking down to the cage, the only kind of emotion I am taking in there is like you think of your family. You think of all the people who helped you. You think of all the adversity you have been through in your life. I take certain emotions in there. The other emotions, anger and all that, I leave that outside. I go in there with just me knowing what I have to do and what I am there to do."
WSOF 28 airs at 9 PM ET/6 PM PT on
NBC Sports Network.
Fighter take:
Gutierrez on sponsors in a small town: "We are a small town, and it’s taken a while to get recognition. We have local stores, and I have a friend whose dad owns a saddle company. It’s
Loredo’s Saddles. They have been with me since my first amateur fight. I have a lawyer,
Scott Cornuad, he has been with me for over two years. Just people who do things around the community that want to support. They are helping me reach something that I couldn’t without them."
