Travis Lutter Interview

With a UFC 83 fight against Rich Franklin booked and ready to go, writer Jordan Arnold went one on one with Travis Lutter to talk about his strategy for the fight, his take on missing weight against Silva, and lots of other interesting anecdotes from his long career.

Ben Zeidler: How do you think that you will fare against Rich?

Travis Lutter: I think that would be a great fight for me. Rich is a great fighter. Anderson Silva definitely has Rich's number, but I still think he's a top tier 185 pound fighter. He did really well at 205 pounds. He's a really good fighter.

Ben Zeidler: Rich seems to be a very well rounded fighter. Is there anything that you are training for specifically for your fight against him?

Travis Lutter: I will fight Rich the same way I fight every other fight. I would just take him down and beat him up. It would be the same thing that I always do. It's not a secret how I fight; I just take it one punch at a time, clinch, and try to take the guy down.

Ben Zeidler: What do you think about the Anderson Silva-Dan Henderson fight?

Travis Lutter: I think it's going to be a good fight. It's going to be fun to watch. It'll be a close fight, and I can't wait to see it; I'm excited about it.

Ben Zeidler: Can you give us a prediction for this fight?

Travis Lutter: I think it's a really close fight, but if I had to bet, I'd bet on Anderson. Just simply because I think that Dan is going to go out there and take him down, but once he takes him down I think that Anderson is better on the ground. He's so long, he can control the distance, and stuff like that. I think that Dan can take him down whenever he wants, but I think he will get drawn into a kickboxing fight, and if he gets drawn into a kickboxing fight with Anderson, then that's a fight he'll lose. Dan's got a great chin, but if I had to make a prediction I'd go with Anderson Silva probably by decision. Dan has all of the tools to beat him, but he sometimes gets drawn into those kickboxing battles when he shouldn't since he's a wrestler. But Dan's a great fighter, and that's just what I think. With that being said, what the hell do I know? Like I said, I really like Dan. He's a great fighter and I'm cheering for him.

Ben Zeidler: How do you think that you would do against Anderson Silva if given another shot at him?

Travis Lutter: I'd beat him, without a doubt. Anderson Silva will not ever beat me again. I made some mistakes that everyone knows about. I missed weight, I cut from too high of a weight, it just wasn't my night. If I was given the chance to fight him again, I just feel like I can take him down. I feel like I can pass his guard, and if I can pass his guard then he's going to be mine.

Ben Zeidler: It would be a great fight though.

Travis Lutter: Yeah. Anderson Silva, every fight that he's ever lost he was winning that fight. There was only one fight that he's ever had where he was losing the fight until the moment he won, and that's my fight. Every fight that he's ever lost he's out there whooping the guy's ass, and he gets caught in a submission. Well it was the exact opposite that night, where him and I are going at it. I was getting the better of him, and I made a mistake. Like I said, I think that Anderson Silva is a great fighter and he deserves all of the props that he is getting, but I think that I can beat him.

Ben Zeidler: Would you call that fight the toughest fight of your career?

Travis Lutter: The toughest loss I had was against Trevor (Prangley). Just because I knew Trevor, I felt like I could beat Trevor, and I trained with Trevor a lot. That loss is definitely the biggest loss. Fighting for the 185 championship and not making weight, not having it as a title fight, and disappointing everybody who paid to see it…yeah, I guess that probably would be my hardest loss.

Ben Zeidler: What do you think about pro-wrestlers fighting in MMA?

Travis Lutter: Brock Lesnar, first and foremost, was a legitimate wrestler. First and foremost, yeah he was a pro wrestler, but he was also a Division 1 national championship wrestler. There are not many people who get to say that any given year. That's something that Matt Hughes didn't accomplish. Lots of good MMA fighters out there didn't win the national championship. Mark Kerr did, Mark Coleman did, and I can't remember if Randy did or didn't…I know he was All-American. If it was an average ordinary WWE wrestler, I would be like "what is he doing here? He's going to get killed." But with Brock Lesnar, that's a totally different animal with his wrestling background. There are things that I think will be interesting with him. First, he's a long time removed from his wrestling days, as far as legitimate wrestling, and second, how much WWE took out of his body. They say that that sport…or that entertainment business is horrible. They work you 300 days a year, and those guys put their bodies you through hell. They say you get more injured in that then in training for a fight or fighting.

Ben Zeidler: Steroids have become a huge issue lately. Why are guys taking them if they know that there's a good chance that they'll get caught?

Travis Lutter: Everybody is probably looking for an edge. Like with my fight against Anderson Silva I was looking for an edge. I was trying to come into that fight as big as possible, obviously without steroids. But you're still looking for an edge. I think that as long as you have people competing for money, guys are going to look for an edge. I think that the difference now and the reason that it's in the news now is that technology caught up with some of these drugs, on how to catch them. In our sport, we don't have the money that some of these baseball players do. They're out buying designer drugs or whatever they're out getting. You've read about the BALCO stuff probably more then I have. But that's an expensive deal. There are only a couple guys that can get stuff like that. I saw Sean Sherk yesterday, though we didn't talk about that issue. He seems like a really nice guy, and hopefully people don't hold it against him for too long. He was just looking for an edge. You are innocent until proven guilty, but he was proven guilty. So I guess you have to assume that he did it, since he was convicted. I'm not talking shit about Sean, because I think that he's a nice guy. I think that athletes have always tried to get an edge, and I think that they'll continue to do that. I don't see that changing anytime soon.

Ben Zeidler: Looking back at The Ultimate Fighter. What was your favorite part about the show?

Travis Lutter: My favorite part of the show was the final day, getting off the set (laughs). Them giving me back my phone, my wallet, and my plane ticket home. No, the best part of it was probably winning it. Having the opportunity that it gave me to kind of broaden the audience that got to see who I am and what kind of fighter I am. It literally opened that up to millions of people, and then on top of it I got to win, and that's always a good thing. But it was still a great day when I got to go home.

Ben Zeidler: Least favorite?

Travis Lutter: Going on the airplane out there…no that probably wasn't the worst. Just being there man, it was just terrible. I hated it. Matt Serra loved it; he thought it was great. He loved being away and not having to worry about anything. Me, I like to be free. I don't like the cooped up lifestyle. You can't go here, can't do this, can't have your phone, can't talk to these people, can't drive a car. I like freedom. I definitely don't want to go to jail. I'm going to pay my taxes (laughs). I hope I won't go at least.

Ben Zeidler: How much was your freedom limited on the set?

Travis Lutter: There are no books, there's no TV, there are no magazines, there's not radio, there's no anything. You do get the Bible if you brought one, so you can read that if you want to read that. But there was nothing to read, nothing to look at, and nothing to do. You can play pool. Some people love to play pool, some guys like to play chess, but I can only play so much of that stuff and then I'm bored. I want to go do something else. It was just difficult having nothing to do. It's amazing how long the day is.

Ben Zeidler: Can you talk a little about your background in fighting?

Travis Lutter: Well I grew up wrestling. I wrestled a little through college until I got kicked of off the team because of my grades, because I was partying too much (laughs). Then I started kickboxing and I saw the UFC. I just hated the idea that this little Royce Gracie could kick my ass. But he was out there beating bigger and better wrestlers then me. I said man I have to learn jiu-jitsu. I couldn't have this little Brazilian dude kicking my ass. So I decided to figure out how to learn it. I bought some tapes, and started training in Texas during spring break, and during summer break I visited Carlos Machado who's a cousin Royce Gracie and I learned from him.

Ben Zeidler: How'd you get the nickname "The Serial Killer"?

Travis Lutter: (laughs) Well, it really hasn't stuck too well. On the show, Patrick Cote was drawing (pictures of) everybody. You would come down there in the morning with a cartoon of you on the fridge. The one that he put on there was me, which was my cartoon face with a grim reaper and red blood on it, and he wrote below "The Serial Killer". It was because I didn't talk much. I think I kind of freaked him out because one day he came upstairs and he came into my room. And I was talking about how it was like jail and whatnot, but with the language difference he thought that I said I had been in jail and that I had hurt somebody. So the next day there was this rumor going around the house. Guys were coming up to me like "Travis, were you in jail? Did you kill somebody?" I was like no why do you say that? They were like "Well, Patrick said that you were talking about it yesterday." And we kind of slowly figured it out that it was the language barrier. He thought I was saying one thing, but I was just rambling on about the freakin' house, and cussing a lot. I think it was the first time that I had talked to him. I just happened to walk into the room and was pissed off at that moment. I was just rambling on about having to be stuck in that house. Venting would be a good word, I guess. So that's how I got the serial killer nickname. All of the guys on the show like it. But I teach jiu-jitsu, and a lot of the parents of the kids’ class that I don't teach didn't like it. (The kids) look up to me and the parents didn't like the serial killer nickname, so I got some phone calls and emails about it. It really didn't sit too well (laughs).

Ben Zeidler: Can you tell us a little about your training center in Fort Worth?

Travis Lutter: It's pretty cool. I've got two gyms here in Fort Worth. We teach jiu-jitsu, we have a boxing instructor that comes in and works with the guys, I teach MMA and wrestling, and I think that we do a good job. We've got about 200 guys who are training between the two schools. We've got some up and coming guys that hang out in the gym, and it's pretty cool.

Ben Zeidler: Do you have anything to say to your fans?

Travis Lutter: I guess I still probably need to apologize for missing weight. It'll never happen again. And thanks to everybody who sends me the nice messages and telling me to keep moving forward, and I'll be back.