On the latest episode of Joe Rogan’s Fight Companion podcast, Eddie Bravo candidly admitted that he was the wrong person to be in the Octagon cornering Tony Ferguson before the ill-fated final round of his fight with Justin Gaethje at UFC 249.
Bravo, who serves as Ferguson’s Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coach, came under fire from some fans after the fight for his advice to ‘El Cucuy’ at that crucial stage in the bout, which included suggesting that he try an ‘imanari roll’ in an attempt to catch Gaethje off-guard and bring him to the mat.
Now, Bravo has given his side of the situation and agreed that he shouldn’t have been the one to be in the Octagon with Ferguson.
“I have never been a head MMA coach ever in my life,” Bravo said. “Never wanted to be. Never wanted to be and even to this day, that’s on me, never been.
I’m not Trevor Wittman, that guy’s amazing. I’m not a Greg Jackson, Duke Roufus. That’s a whole ‘nother level. That’s a guy that should be talking to the fighter that’s sitting down.
“I’m the wide receiver coach. I’m the guy that just throws in s*it on the side. Especially in a standup fight, I shouldn’t have been mic’d, because I knew this was gonna be a standup fight.
“If the fight was gonna go to the ground, if it was the Khabib (Nurmagomedov) fight, yeah, maybe there’s gonna be a lot of ground work, maybe it makes sense for television to mic me.
“But when they were mic’ing me up, I’m like, I’m just there for emotional support because it’s gonna be a standup war.
“One of the weirdest things was in between the first round and second round, they only allowed one coach in and they said, ‘Who’s it gonna be?’ And I was the first one to say, ‘Not me. I’m not the MMA head coach, it’s gotta be the striking coach that goes in there. Everybody agreed, for sure.
“It’s always gotta be the striking coach, the head coach, the guy that talks to him. I’m just the guy that offers suggestions. I never wanted to be [the head coach], never tried to be.”
