Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum may not understand the mixed martial arts game as a whole, but he revealed head coach — and avid MMA fan — Joe Mazzulla uses pivotal moments from UFC bouts to motivate the team.
After beating the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night to go up 3-0 in the NBA Finals, Tatum spoke with members of the media and explained how Mazzulla’s UFC fandom and knowledge has helped the team during a historic playoff run.
Tatum on Mazzulla using other sports to teach:
“Joe does a great job of showing us clips and things from different sports… I don’t know the terminology of UFC, but put ‘em in a choke hold and shit, they’re a bit tap out and you see guy or the woman that’s winning relaxing.” pic.twitter.com/xswFcQo844
— Justin Turpin (@JustinmTurpin) June 13, 2024
“Joe does a great job of showing us clips and things from other sports,” Tatum said following the Celtics’ Game 3 win. “He’s a big UFC fan, and he’s showing us fights of people that — I don’t know the terminology of UFC — but put them in a choke hold and shit.
“Like, they’re about to tap out, and you just see the guy, or the woman, who is winning relaxing because they feel like they’re about to win, then [they] give the other person life. I’m just trying to translate that to the game of basketball: The closer you are to winning, the closer they are to surviving.
“[He’s] basically trying to remind us that we still got a long way to go, still have to play the right way, we still got to win, and that they’re not going to quit. We should expect the best from them from here on out.”
Mazzulla is a jiu-jitsu practitioner in his own right, and has been seen visiting and learning from known names in the MMA space, including Xtreme Couture head coach Eric Nicksick.
Prior to the Celtics’ win on Wednesday night in Dallas, Mazzulla was asked about which specific fights he shows his team — and it might be easier to ask him which fights he hasn’t — but cited one specific example using Alex Pereira’s most recent viral knockout in the main event of UFC 300.
Joe Mazzulla has been regularly showing the players UFC fights:
“The closer you are to beating someone, the close you are to getting your ass kicked.”
Pretty funny segment from Joe for his last question before Game 3 pic.twitter.com/X9UUrqQ7bc
— Noa Dalzell (@NoaDalzellNBA) June 12, 2024
“There’s a lot of [fights I show the players], usually every single fight,” Mazzulla said. “I think it was [UFC] 302, the guy gets hit in the nuts … complains to the referee and gets distracted, and then gets choked out in the next round, so he lost his focus.
“You see Pereira gets hit in the nuts [then] looks at the referee, and knocks [Jamahal Hill] out five seconds later. So it’s the approach to what happens to you and how you handle it — the closer you are to beating someone, the closer you are to getting your ass kicked.”
