Tag: Gregor Gillespie

Gregor Gillespie explains why he didn’t wrestle Kevin Lee at UFC 244, would love rematch

Gregor Gillespie explains why he didn’t use his wrestling against Kevin Lee at UFC 246

[autotag]Kevin Lee[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Gregor Gillespie[/autotag] didn’t exactly go as expected.

The lightweight clash, which opened up the pay-per-view portion of UFC 244 on Nov. 2 at Madison Square Garden in New York, ended up being a quick, exciting striking battle. Lee scored the knockout almost three minutes in to put an end to the short, but back-and-forth war. Many expected the bout to be a high-level grappling match, given that both Gillespie (13-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) and Lee are two of the very best wrestlers in the division.

“I think a lot of people thought that was going to be the fight, just grappling, right,” Gillespie told MMA Junkie. “So that was kind of the general consensus that there was going to be a grinding out, (expletive) hanging on each other, pulling each other, tangling and scrabbling type of fight, but it was the exact opposite. I took one shot, didn’t even come close, came right back up and went back to striking.”

With the result in mind, some fans questioned why Gillespie didn’t use his NCAA Division I All-American pedigree and wrestled Lee more. Gillespie, who was holding more than his own on the feet, causing a lot of damage with his boxing, says it’s easier said than done.

“I thought I was doing really well in the striking,” Gillespie said. “The sideline couch-coaches, the trolls online were like, ‘Why didn’t you wrestle, bro? You should’ve (expletive) wrestled sooner, that’s what got you there. Don’t forget what got you there.’

“But Kevin Lee is no slouch when it comes to grappling, he’s an excellent wrestler for MMA and he’s not exactly easy to takedown. They obviously came with a great game plan – stay low, don’t get too high even if there’s some striking exchanges that don’t go your way. He was in a super low stance and you can’t just dive in on a guy like that, and I thought I was doing really well in the striking.

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“I thought I was winning the exchanges up to that point, but then again, that doesn’t mean anything in MMA, things can change in the blink of an eye as you see. But I thought I was striking really (expletive) well: I busted his eyes up, I busted his nose up. The plan was hit him enough so where he has to stand up a little bit to avoid getting hit and then you shoot. But he kept that (expletive) stance, man. I couldn’t get him out of that stance and I’m not diving in on a guy like that.

“You get all these assholes on the internet saying you should’ve shot, man, but I mean, I was winning the exchanges. And if you dive in, then you can get kneed in the mouth and then get knocked out. And then it’s easy to say, ‘Why did you shoot, you were winning the exchanges,’ so you can’t win. When you know the result it’s super easy to say you should’ve done this or that.”

Gillespie has a sober assessment on how immediate rematches go in the UFC, so he’s not expecting to get matched up with Lee again anytime soon. However, the Long Island native would love to get another crack at Lee sometime in the future.

“As far as the rematch, I would obviously love to fight Kevin Lee, but unfortunately in this sport – unless you’re a titleholder and it’s a title fight that could’ve been a rematch – that’s not how fighting works,” Gillespie said. “I’m not going to get a rematch with Kevin Lee even if I begged for one right now. However, if we meet down the road, I would absolutely love that. That would be if we meet again along the road to the belt, I’d love that.

“Again, I’m not asking for one right now because I know it’s not in the realm of possibilities, but I hope one day we both get to a point, maybe we fight for the belt one day, maybe we have a title eliminator one day, I would really like that.”

Gillespie is back to training, but not sparring. The 32-year-old plans to return to competition sometime in the spring before the 2020 NCAA wrestling championship. Gillespie has no opponent in mind, but wants to get hands on someone in top 10.

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When it comes to trash talk and callouts, Gregor Gillespie is ‘done doing that sh*t’

To be clear: Gregor Gillespie isn’t blaming trash talk for his knockout loss at UFC 244, but nothing about his game was authentic.

[autotag]Gregor Gillespie[/autotag] is going to take things down a notch.

The New York native will resort back to his original ways after suffering his first professional loss to Kevin Lee back in November at UFC 244. Defeat wasn’t the only new experience for Gillespie (13-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) in his developing MMA career, as he also engaged in the trash talk and callout culture of the sport during the buildup.

Gillespie, who had generally kept a good distance from talking trash, was far more vocal ahead of the Lee fight, and even prior to that had also made the first callout of his career.

The NCAA Division I All-American made clear the extra talk didn’t have anything to do with his performance or the outcome of his fight against Lee, saying “The Motown Phenom” simply landed the “perfect kick.”

But despite not taking a toll, Gillespie wants to go back to his old ways and let his performance do the talking.

“Yeah, I’m going to stay away from that,” Gillespie told MMA Junkie. “I’m not going to say that was at all part of the reason why I lost. I’m not this dummy that thinks because I wore a different pair of socks that’s why I lost. I’m not superstitious as far as that, but I like to keep it the same, and I got a little, I mean, it wasn’t an overwhelming amount of getting caught up in the sh*t talk after, but the thing is that at that point, I wasn’t getting any offers, wasn’t getting any fights. Several people had turned down fights when I was asking them.

“The UFC has done an amazing job with matching me up with good guys, but I think I got to a point where I needed to create a little bit of a stir because a lot of people were looking at that like, ‘Gillespie isn’t fighting because he’s scared. Gillespie isn’t fighting because he doesn’t want to fight.’ A lot of people were sending me a lot of nasty sh*t on Instagram like, ‘Maybe if you fought more than once a year you’d be in the top 10, blah blah blah.’ So I put those out more like, ‘Hey, look, I’m trying guys. I’m just not getting the fights I’m asking for.’

“And that’s nothing on the UFC, the UFC has been f*cking amazing with me. Anybody that complains about the UFC, they’re having a completely different experience than I am because the UFC has been phenomenal to me in getting me matched up. We were just having a tough time getting guys in the top 10 that wanted to fight – also a lot of guys were booked or injured or coming off loses or recent fights. So I felt like I had to put something out there to let people know that I was trying to fight, so I’m probably going to stay away from that like I have in the past.

“I think I got a little bit caught up doing too many interviews and talking about what was going to happen. Then I got into that little thing in the weigh-in of who’s going to look away from who, who’s going to turn first, and I’m done doing that sh*t. I’m going to go back and do exactly what I was doing before: Head down, not do the whole get-crazy-during-the-staredown thing, no interviews that are going to – if you start talking about my opponent or what’s going to happen next, I’m done with the interview. I’m going to go back to exactly what I was doing before.”

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There are many reasons why Gillespie will look to dial down on the talking aspect of MMA. For starters, he admits he’s not quite Conor McGregor, and believes he frankly doesn’t need to be loud to achieve his ultimate goal.

“I’m not a sh*t talker, and I’ve never been a sh*t talker,” Gillespie explained. “It actually makes me genuinely uncomfortable. You can tell when I did that Anthony Pettis callout I was visually uncomfortable, and it wasn’t organic. It looked scripted, and it’s because it was scripted. I mean, even Chael Sonnen ripped me apart for that and rightfully so. It was just a horrible acting job on my end, and it’s because that’s exactly what it was. It was an uncomfortable situation of acting, and I didn’t do it well. I wasn’t comfortable, it wasn’t organic, so I don’t like doing that.

“I know it’s part of the sport, and I’m not hating on anyone that’s is good at it. I mean, Conor McGregor has literally mad hundreds of millions of dollars out of it, you know, paired with the fact that he can also fight pretty damn good. So you know, like I’m not good at it, and I understand it.

“I can generate enough of an interest with my fighting and my personal life. I put a lot of it on Instagram, and there are a lot of fishing fans out there and a lot of country boys like me, so I appeal to a different audience – maybe not the guys who love watching that WWE style sh*t. That’s not me. I definitely have my own things. I’ve picked up a lot of followers over the past year, so I think I have a different fan base, and maybe I’m bringing in a different fan base to the sport of MMA. I’ve had people say, ‘I haven’t watched fighting until I saw you, I’m a fisherman, and I just saw your fishing videos.’

“I’m all about promoting the sport, a certain fight, but not going to do it by corny one-liners about your mom.”

Gregor Gillespie was flattened by a Kevin Lee head kick at UFC 244. (Sarah Stier, USA TODAY Sports)

Big part of the reason there’s been a rise in trash talk is because it may result in desired matchmaking and increased fan interest. It can be a beneficial tool to many fighters. Gillespie believes there’s a way around getting ahead through promotion, and that’s just simply what he does best – winning.

“My game plan has always been if you win the fights, you’re going to get bigger fights,” Gillespie said. “So I’ll string together a few more good ones, and I’ll be right where I want to be. Look at George St-Pierre. He didn’t even say a f*cking word, nd he’s one of the most popular fighters in history.

“I also want to be, and as corny as this sounds, but man, I guess this is where the wresting comes in: We were always taught to be good role models and be examples for the kids who are going to watch you compete. So I hope they see this guy that cleaned up his life, he’s a former drug user and alcoholic, cleaned his life up, gets back on track, gets into a sport, makes it into the UFC, gets in the top 10, and maybe gets a title shot one day and wins the belt. I want to be a good role model.

“There’s also a life after fighting, too. I might have to apply for a job after I’m done fighting, and let’s say six years from now I’m trying to be a teacher, and they’re going to look back at my Instagram, and he was telling someone to suck his d*ck, and all the sudden you’re getting, ‘Oh, we can’t hire this guy. There’s a video of him on his own page telling someone to suck his d*ck.’ You can’t do that. So where do you draw the line? I’m trying to look forward. You can’t fight forever. At some point you might have to put in a job application with a company that may not like what you’re saying.

“So I don’t know. I’m all about promoting a fight and gaining, retaining as much interest in me, my fight, and the promotion as much as I possibly can. But at what expense?”

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Gregor Gillespie: Knockout loss to Kevin Lee doesn’t mean I’m not top-10 material

Gregor Gillespie is trying to keep his first career loss in perspective.

[autotag]Gregor Gillespie[/autotag] suffered his first professional loss earlier this month, but he still believes he’s top-10 material.

Gillespie (13-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) got his shot to vault up the lightweight rankings when he took on former UFC interim title challenger Kevin Lee at UFC 244, but things didn’t go his way.

Even though Gillespie suffered a first-round knockout loss to Lee, he still believes he has what it takes to compete with the best in the division.

“I want another top-10 guy, I’ll say that,” Gillespie said on the “Anik and Florian” podcast. “Obviously I don’t think that loss is an indication that I don’t belong in the top 10. I think it’s one of those things that happens. I want to absolutely state this. I am not saying I got caught or Kevin Lee got lucky. There’s absolutely nothing lucky about what he did. I will give him all the credit in the world. It was a perfectly placed, a perfectly timed, perfectly executed kick, and that’s what every fighter hopes they can do in a fight.”

A four-time NCAA Division I All-American, Gillespie possesses some of the best wrestling credentials in MMA, but he didn’t really get a chance to display them against Lee.

Gillespie says it’s easier said than done, and it’s easier to critique something after knowing the outcome. He proceeded to break down how the fight panned out, and responded to questions about why he didn’t attempt to wrestle more.

“We were talking to my coaches, and we were talking to my teammates, would I have probably wrestled, maybe I would have forced a little more wrestling action in the beginning, but it was really tough,” Gillespie said. “First of all, Kevin Lee is a super good grappler, wrestler, whatever you want to call it, so that’s not a foreign area for him and also his stance was so low. He was obviously waiting for the takedown. He’s been coached really well, as far as that was concerned, and it wasn’t the right time. If there’s someone who knows the right time to shoot, it’s me.”

“In my opinion I was winning the exchanges,” Gillespie added. “I think I did some damage in the striking. It was obviously fairly even, but I felt I was winning slightly, but would if I would have taken a shot at that point when he was low. I would have ate a knee and got knocked out that way, and then everyone would have said you were winning the exchanges, your striking looked good, why did you go for this shot, he was waiting for it.”

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A knockout loss can often be a bitter pill to swallow, especially for a previously unbeaten fighter, and while Gillespie admits it wasn’t the best feeling in the world, he knows it’s the nature of the game.

“I haven’t experienced a loss since wrestling, which would have been I guess 2011,” Gillespie said. “That’s a long time ago. Thirteen wins is a good amount, and again it’s been years since I’ve suffered a loss, so obviously in the back of your mind when you are a fighter and you’re getting into the higher levels of the opponents, you always wonder what if I do lose. That’s not self doubt; that’s just being realistic.

“Obviously it’s devastating. Obviously (I was) sad and upset and all those normal feelings you would be when you lose, but I didn’t have any regrets as far as how I approached the fight, how I trained for the fight, how I prepared. Anything leading up to that, I think we did everything perfect and everything normal, and it’s just one of those things that I was fighting a really good opponent, and he did obviously some perfect things, and that’s the result.”

While Gillespie can’t determine an exact timetable for a return, he is anxious to get back in the octagon and back in the win column.

“I feel like I really need to get back in there and redeem myself, sometime in the spring,” Gillespie said. “I think as far as I know at this point, I’m still on medical suspension, so I’m sure they want me to wait a little bit as far as that goes.”

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