Gil Martinez Blog: Back from Philly and Met a Legend

Hey everyone. This is my first blog post for Fighters.com! I am really glad I am able to share my thoughts on the sport on such a great site. Hopefully you will enjoy my insight into what is going on in my world.

Just got home from Philadelphia and the weekend had some ups and some downs. I cornered Vitor Belfort on Saturday night and it could not have gone any better for him. Vitor went out and looked like the young Vitor and looked great. He was really fast with his hands and looked hungry and aggressive. You can see it in his eyes that he is hungry for another title shot. The thing about that fight that was so impressive is that no one has stopped Akiyama like that before. Akiyama is a very tough guy and never lays downf for anyone. Even in his losses he comes to fight every time – Dana White said the very same thing after Saturday night. Vitor was obviously very happy with the result. Personally this was the first time I have worked with Vitor for an entire camp. We worked together 2 or 3 days each week and I think it helps him a lot to be confident in his hands, so I was really happy with the result and that I was able to work with such a pro.

I also cornered Mike Pyle on Saturday night. Mike was very prepared and looked great in camp leading up to Saturday. Mike lost, but there is no shame in losing to a guy like Rory MacDonald. MacDonald is a very tough and super talented. People were talking about age going into this fight, but at this level age means almost nothing – it is just a number. There are some guys in their 30s who are super talented and some guys like Rory who are super talented in their early 20s. A guy like him has been doing MMA for so long that his MMA age is actually very experienced. For Mike to lose to Rory, there is no shame whatsoever. Rory is hungry and destined for greatness. He will be in the top 5 if he isn’t already and he has stopped something like the last 9 of 10 guys he has beaten. If Mike had lost to a guy who isn’t a top fighter, then I wouldn’t be saying these things. But Rory will be a superstar.

The city of Philadelphia was great, and the fans were awesome to all of the fighters. We did a few cool things like visited the Rocky statue and a few other historical monuments. Then on fight night there was actually concert right across the street and that took away thousands of fans for the UFC show – but the UFC show still looked sold out. Which shows you how big of a fight town Philly is.

A major highlight for me was meeting and chatting with Bernard Hopkins, who is one of the greatest boxers in history. We were able to train at his gym and watch him train. Just being in his presence was amazing for the guys and me. It was also awesome to have him at the UFC since he is such a big fight fan. People are always trying to compare boxing to MMA and Bernard compared the two in a way that I had never heard before, but it is a perfect analogy.  He said “You cannot take a shark out of the water and throw him in the jungle vs a lion. He will be destroyed. And if you put a lion in the water vs a shark the lion will be destroyed. Just like boxing and MMA – they are two totally different animals. We need to remember that.” I thought that was a great way to compare them and pretty cool coming from such a legend.

I’m back in Vegas and have a big week ahead. Lots of guys at Coutures training hard. Thanks for reading this week. Make sure to check back next week. If you are ever out in Vegas and want to train, just let me know. If you want to reach me follow me on twitter @mastermitter. Thanks for reading!

Gil