A recent
Ultimate Fighting Championship pickup might have “Mortal
Kombat” on the brain.
On about a month’s notice, the promotion signed aggressive
middleweight Joilton
Lutterbach (38-9, 1 NC) to take on (12-0) at
UFC on ABC 6 on June 22. The German by way of Brazil is elated
to make his organizational debut in Saudi Arabia, and with this
being his 70th pro fight in MMA and kickboxing combined, he does
not expect the bright lights will get to him. Unafraid of the
Russian’s knockout power, Lutterbach spoke with Sherdog on
Wednesday about his upcoming debut.
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“I’m better than him in every area,” Lutterbach said confidently.
“I see myself as far superior to him in boxing, wrestling and on
the ground. The only thing he does better than me is kick. I’m a
year older than him, but I have four times as many MMA fights and
practically the same curriculum in kickboxing.”
Boasting a slew of grappling credentials, “Peregrino” nevertheless
wishes that he has the opportunity to defeat his opponent on the
feet.
“I’m a black belt in judo, jiu-jitsu and luta livre,” he stated.
“From what he showed in the fight with Bruno ‘Blindado’
[Silva], my superiority on the ground is clear over him. If I
take him down there won’t be a fight. Since my biggest focus
nowadays is putting on a show, I want to show in this UFC debut
that I’m superior to him standing up. He won’t make it past the
second round. I’ll sub-zero him in the second round.”
Born in Brazil but fighting and training out of Germany, Lutterbach
has traveled the world competing for various combat sports
organizations over the years. With multiple fights in Europe,
Lutterbach felt pressured to represent Germany rather than his home
country. This will be different in Saudi Arabia.
“As most events have a lot of Brazilians and my wife has German
ancestry, I had to represent Germany several times, but everyone
knows I’m Brazilian. I’m really anxious to debut in the biggest
organization in the world beating this Russian with Brazilian flag
on my gear,” Lutterbach noted.
The support from fellow countrymen and women has been overwhelming
since this matchup was announced. It came as a surprise that
Magomedov was quite unpopular in Brazil, although some of the
Russian’s comments towards a fellow UFC star have changed their
opinions of him.
“I was impressed by how hated this guy is in Brazil,” he admitted.
“I think it’s because of the criticism of Michel
[Pereira], who is having a heroic attitude in helping the
victims in the south of Brazil. I received thousands of messages
asking me to shut up the Russian loudmouth, something that only
increased my motivation.”
While this fight against Magomedov will come at 185 pounds,
Lutterbach would feel more comfortable down 15 pounds at his more
natural weight class of welterweight. If given the chance, he would
be glad to drop down and rejoin the 170-pound category’s crowded
ranks.
“I signed to fight at middleweight and I promised [UFC matchmaker]
Sean Shelby that I would be available to him in the division, but
obviously if I could choose, I would prefer to fight at my weight,”
Lutterbach said.
As a nearly 50-fight MMA vet, Lutterbach has skipped across a
number of notable leagues including Shooto Brazil, Cage Warriors Fighting Championship, Professional Fighters League and KSW. The latter of those four is where he
encountered future UFC middleweight king Dricus Du
Plessis, and ever since he came up short against the South
African, Lutterbach has been watching his career. The Brazilian
proffered some thoughts on the unresolved title picture at his
current weight class.
“Dricus has above-average strength for the division. But honestly,
I think [out of Israel
Adesanya, Khamzat
Chimaev, Paulo
Costa, Robert
Whittaker and Sean
Strickland], Chimaev is the worst matchup for him,” “Peregrino”
concluded.