Elisha Ellison's coach: Gable Steveson 'hasn't done anything' in MMA
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Brace yourselves. Coach Javier Torres is warning the MMA world that there will be a major upset at UFC 329.
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Torres, who is most notably known for Waldo Cortes-Acosta's rise to UFC title contention, has a new student under his wing: Elisha Ellison. For their first assignment training together, they were given the task of spoiling the UFC debut of Olympic gold medalist in wrestling Gable Steveson. Steveson (3-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC), who's already being labeled by many as a future UFC champion, enters Saturday's UFC 329 at the T-Mobile Arena as one of the biggest favorites in the promotion's history.
To many, this is a near-impossible task for Ellison (5-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC), but Torres doesn't see it that way at all.
"There's going to be challenges in this game and tough fights," Torres told Hablemos MMA in Spanish. "Yeah, he's an Olympic wrestler, and he won gold and did well, but what has he done in MMA? He hasn't done anything. When he fought Hugo (Lezama) in Mexico, I didn't think he was impressive. He got hit several times and left himself open to hits. Around the three-minute mark, he was already breathing heavily. I told Elisha, and that's what we worked on: we're not going to stop moving in the first round. We're going to touch him over and over and hit him in the body and move. Our job in this fight is to take him into our world and take him to the second round. That's when things will start to change."
Ellison left Washington to train specifically under Torres and his stable of heavyweights. Torres believes they had the perfect training partners in UFC heavyweight contender Cortes-Acosta and UFC rookie and standout college wrestler Tyrell Fortune.
"We're going to test him," Torres said. "We had Waldo in this camp, Tyrell Fortune, who wrestled and has an upcoming fight. ... He and Elisha were competitive and fought hard. I have a lot of heavyweights right now. We did a hard camp, a very good one, and we're well trained physically and mentally."
Apart from sharpening his skills, Torres has also done a lot of mental work on Ellison, who admitted to being overtaken by nerves in his UFC debut loss. Torres is embracing the underdog role, and believes it will play in their favor come fight night.
"I think the pressure is on Gable Steveson," Torres said. "We're the biggest underdog, and we're good with that. We've done the work, and now we just have to show it on Saturday."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Elisha Ellison's coach: Gable Steveson 'hasn't done anything' in MMA