Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla uses UFC fight clips to motivate his team, emphasizing the importance of maintaining focus and effort even when victory seems imminent, which has contributed to their successful playoff run.
Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum may not fully grasp the intricacies of mixed martial arts. However, he revealed that head coach Joe Mazzulla, an avid MMA fan, uses pivotal moments from UFC bouts to motivate the team.
After defeating the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night to go up 3-0 in the NBA Finals, Tatum spoke with the media. He explained how Mazzulla’s UFC fandom and knowledge have been instrumental during their historic playoff run.
“Joe does a great job of showing us clips and things from different sports,” Tatum said. “I don’t know the terminology of UFC, but put ’em in a choke hold and shit, they’re about to tap out, and you see the guy or the woman that’s winning relaxing.”
Tatum continued, “He’s a big UFC fan, and he’s showing us fights of people that—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.”
“I’m just trying to translate that to basketball: The closer you are to winning, the closer they are to surviving,” Tatum added. “Basically, he’s reminding us that we still got a long way to go, still have to play the right way, and that they’re not going to quit.”
Mazzulla, a jiu-jitsu practitioner himself, has been seen visiting and learning from known names in the MMA space. This includes Xtreme Couture head coach Eric Nicksick.
Before the Celtics’ win on Wednesday night in Dallas, Mazzulla was asked about which specific fights he shows his team. It might be easier to ask him which fights he hasn’t shown, but he cited one specific example using Alex Pereira’s recent viral knockout in the main event of UFC 300.
“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, then gets choked out in the next round, so he lost his focus.”
“You see Pereira gets hit in the nuts, looks at the referee, and knocks Jamahal Hill out five seconds later,” Mazzulla elaborated. “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.”
Joe Mazzulla has been regularly showing the players UFC fights, emphasizing that “the closer you are to beating someone, the closer you are to getting your ass kicked.” Pretty funny segment from Joe for his last question before Game 3.