Travis Lutter: Down but not Out

There’s been much speculation regarding Travis Lutter’s fight with Rich “Ace” Franklin. Did he come into the fight out of shape and gas? Or, was it a shot Travis took early in round 1 that had him out on his feet? It seems as though everyone has an opinion on this, with the most popular one being that he was out of shape. Things haven’t got any easier for Lutter as he was quoted in an interview saying, “MMA fans suck”. Then last Friday the UFC released him from his contract. Needless to say it’s been a trying week for one of MMA’s top middleweights. Even though speculating is one of the things this site does, I felt the answers to these questions should be told by the man himself. Travis was nice enough to take a call from me regarding all the recent turmoil.Fromthegut: What are your thoughts on being released from the UFC?Travis Lutter: My ego is probably not where it should be but it’s not the end of the world. There are a lot of other places to fight. The UFC is #1 right now as far as getting you in front of the most people, but there are other organizations out there that are paying better.FTG: Do you feel it was deserved?Travis: Who am I to say if it was or wasn’t deserved. I’m not the guy writing the checks. They can run their business how they want. It’s their horse; it’s how they choose to ride it. I’m not going to complain about that.FTG: Did they give you a reason why?Travis: I lost. That’s the reason I’ve been given. I lost. When you lose, I guess they don’t like that. If I won we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation. It happens. The thing that sucks about this sport is everybody loses. Hell Chuck Liddell lost, Randy Couture lost you know. Everybody loses. Unfortunately sometimes people forget that. I’m not complaining. The UFC wanted to cut me; they cut me.FTG: Have you been in contact with any other organizations?Travis: My manager has been talking to people. There are some people who are supposed to be getting in touch with me, I guess. I really try and stay out of that.FTG: Is there any organization you would prefer?Travis: If I had to hand pick one? HDNet because it’s right here in Texas, but beggars can’t be choosers. Dream is putting on a good tournament, but I don’t know, whoever wants me. At this stage I’m not gonna take a pay cut though.FTG: How disappointed are you with the Franklin fight?Travis: How disappointed am I? I don’t know which fight I’m more disappointed over this or the Anderson fight. MMA is a bitch sometimes. How disappointed… on a scale of 1 to 10, I’m a twenty.FTG: You did better against Anderson Silva than any other of his opponents (in the UFC) and you came very close to beating Franklin. I thought you had him with the armbar. How discouraging is that?Travis: I thought I had him too man. When I sat for it I thought I was putting on a nice display of Jiu-Jitsu. I was shocked when he got out of it. I knew I was real tired before that.FTG: Did you get caught with a shot early?Travis: I know I got rocked 18 seconds in and I don’t remember anything from then until I was passing his guard. There were a couple of minutes that are a blank to me. What I remember is being really tired as I was passing his guard and feeling like I need to end this quick. I just had the feeling of not being able to get my second wind.FTG: What do you think of Rich’s remarks post-fight regarding your conditioning?Travis: He’s seeing something I missed. Something happened in this fight. I didn’t have my best performance–because I did gas. The reason? I don’t know because I was in shape. I didn’t gas in the Anderson fight. So I don’t know why Rich would say that, but he won the fight, he can say whatever the hell he wants.FTG: You trained with Mark Dellegrotte for this fight. Are you going to continue to?Travis: I don’t know what I’m going to do right now. I’m talking with the Cooper Clinic guy’s. I’m going to have a lactic acid test to see were that all is. I’m trying to get more scientific. As far as training partners, I don’t know. I haven’t talked to Mark since the fight. I am sure we will talk in the near future.FTG: How many times did you come to Boston to train with Mark?Travis: Only once. Mark and I worked on the show (TUF 4). What I liked Mark for is setting up a game plan and he is a good confidence booster. But I am not training with him like Florian does. I like Mark a lot, if I lived up in Boston I would be training in Mauy Thai with him. But I live in Texas.FTG: I read your interview where you said “MMA fans suck” in its entirety so I know what type of fan you were talking about. It seems to have taken on a life of it’s own. Do you regret saying that now?Travis: The way it was intended was true. I was upset when I said it. You are reading all of these negative e-mails—I get a lot of positive e-mails too before and after this—but it sucks to get people saying “you suck” or maybe ten times worse than that. I am not saying that all MMA fans suck but these guys taking time out of their busy day to write me to tell me that I suck. Man, I am not going to take back what I said. Do you think other athletes like Matt Lindland or Rich Franklin are going to send me an e-mail saying, “Trav—you suck” of course not. Maybe these guys do think I suck. That’s fine send me an e-mail that says you hate me.FTG: So how were you received in Canada?Travis: I thought I was received pretty good. I thought I was gonna get booed more. There were some but the Canadian fans were great.FTG: So where do you go from here? Any plans on changing things up?Travis: I’m going to stay right here in Texas. The cars not that broke where as I need to replace it. I’m competitive in these fights. I don’t think I’m embarrassing myself. Maybe I’m wrong. I had a chance to win these fights. It just didn’t go my way. Me, picking-up and moving is not going to happen. I love Texas, I have great training partners in Texas and it’s not their fault I didn’t win.FTG: Thanks Travis for taking the time to answer these questions. Good luck.Travis: Thanks for the interview.Whichever organization Travis Lutter ends up with, I’m sure he’ll remain a top middleweight. In fact, I predict that Travis in any other organization will be wearing a belt with in one year!