LFA 93’s Teshay Gouthro “I’m coming to take this guy’s head off”
Teshay Gouthro locks horns with Justin Wetzell at LFA 93 on October 16th. The bantamweight bout takes place at Hartman Arena in Park City, Kansas. The broadcast goes on UFC Fight Pass and kicks off at 9:00 PM ET. The Niagara Top Team pugilist took time to speak with me ahead of his promotional debut and below are several excerpts from our conversation.
Gouthro vs Wetzell
The timeline with this fight offer and studying Justin Wetzell
“My manager sent me the name of this guy and I checked him out. It was for LFA and I talked to my coaches. I was down, right away. It was up to them to make the final decision.”
“I feel like I know him. I haven’t had a full camp to study him and all that but I’ve been doing a lot of studying. Just getting to know him as a fighter, his skillset, him as a person, watching videotape on him. I like to know everything about my fighter and I’m extremely confident. His skillset I’m finding matches up perfectly with mine. I see a lot of holes in his game where I can expose him. I feel like once I control the range, I can control the fight. Wherever I want to take it, I’m gonna take it…Leave the cage looking pretty as always.”
Adapting during the pandemic and his KOTC fight cancellation
“March sucked. I was pretty pumped to fight for King of the Cage. Just because of the camp I put in. It was mainly the camp I put in. It was two months of hard, hard work. Discussed things with my strength and conditioning coach and yeah, COVID hit. It sucked but it’s ok. I feel like everything happens for a reason, right? I’m in no rush, I’m young. I got to work on a lot of things. Build my body and mindset.”
Teshay Gouthro
The rise of Niagara Top Team
“We all knew it was going to happen. It was just a matter of time. We were just putting in work in places that were just like basements. Just getting in that hard work. But we believed in the work, we believed in the process, and now everything’s falling together. This is just a small step for all of us even for Aaron (Jeffery). This is main event you know what I mean? It’s just a small part in the bigger picture in a bigger dream that we’re all going to get to.”
Being on the same card as NTT teammate and LFA 93 main eventer Aaron Jeffery
“It’s actually dope. He’s main event so once I realized it all matched up, we already had coaches going up and it worked out perfect. We fought on another card before and it’s just going to be good times. I like fighting with my teammates and then obviously fighting first, I’m gonna go out there and get my W to keep the energy going for Aaron.”
LFA 93
The last fight for Teshay Gouthro at BTC 8 that saw him earn a decision win over Ariel Zuniga
“I like fighting at home but I realized I like fighting not at home more. I don’t know, I like going to other countries and taking out their guys. It brings a little something out in me, you know what I mean? But it was good to have all my family there and all that. One thing I noticed though when I was walking up to the cage, I just blanked it all out. I didn’t want to hear everyone screaming my name.”
Contemplating the feel of competing with no fans in attendance
“Me and my coach talked about it yesterday and it’s gonna actually probably play into my hands. Because I’m such a hype fighter and I find I get so hype off the crowd. My coaches are calming me down because I want to be calm, cool, and collected in the fight. Still with that killer mentality. So I think without the crowd, I’ll be able to just focus on what I need to do to go in there…It’s just like sparring, man.”
Parting thoughts
“I’m coming to take this guy’s head off. It’s been a long time. So I’m going to be zoned in and focused. That’s what it takes.”
