Chris Gutierrez says Andre Ewell and Miles Johns callouts are “Not going away”
Chris Gutierrez is not forgetting about his recent callouts.
Despite being slated to fight Luke Sanders at UFC’s event on Aug. 1, Gutierrez still has Andre Ewell and Miles John on his mind. It’s two names he showed interest in following his second-round TKO win against Vince Morales at UFC on ESPN 9 on May 30.
“That’s not going away. After this fight, maybe one of them will step up,” Gutierrez said. “I’m still intrigued by those matchups.”
Ewell and Johns
Gutierrez has his reasons for eying Ewell and Johns. Ewell picked up a split decision win against Gutierrez’s training partner, Jonathan Martinez by split decision at UFC 247 on Feb. 8.
Gutierrez is looking to earn revenge for his teammate.
The 29-year-old wants to scrap with Miles Johns for other reasons. John and Gutierrez both fought for Legacy Fighting Alliance in 2017 and 2018. Johns held the LFA title, while Gutierrez picked up two wins in the division.
Both were at the top of LFA bantamweights, but never crossed paths. Gutierrez hopes he will finally meet Johns inside the octagon.
“That fight [with Ewell] intrigued me because of the outcome there and I wanted to get that one back,” Gutierrez said. “Me and Miles never got a chance to really dance. We had some words exchanged in the past and so, nothing against him really, I just think it will be a good matchup.”
Sanders
Gutierrez will have to wait on Ewell. Ewell suffered an arm injury from his bout with Martinez. Johns has nothing coming up as of yet, but Gutierrez is already busy with Sanders.
Sanders is coming off a second-round TKO against former UFC bantamweight champion Renan Barao at UFC on ESPN 1 in February 2019. It’s a bout Gutierrez considers more intriguing than Ewell and Johns at the moment.
“He was the name that popped up and stylistically, we were like, ‘This will be a good fight,’ so we ran with it,” Gutierrez said. “I want to test myself against the best and right now he’s the best. He’s the name that got chosen, so we’re taking him as a champion.”
Although Johns is coming off a loss, Ewell and Sanders re-entered the win column in their last fights. Gutierrez is currently on a run with three-straight victories against Morales, Geraldo de Freitas and Ryan MacDonald.
While racking up consecutive victories in one of the UFC’s deepest divisions, Gutierrez knows he is up against some highly touted talent.
Whether Chris Gutierrez cracks the top 15 or not, names like Ewell and Johns are tough to forget.
“Just like my coach said, ‘We are among the elite.’ Our job is to stand out among the elite,” Gutierrez said. “As far as management or anything like that, telling me this, no. I was just like these are two good fights.”
