Bryan Caraway: Advice to ‘Coast’ Against Mizugaki Blown Out of Proportion

Bryan Caraway, on “Beatdown,” discussing the instructions he received before the third round of his bout against Takeya Mizugaki, which included a much-criticized comment from girlfriend Miesha Tate that he could “coast”:

“That was absolutely blown completely out of proportion. First of all, Miesha’s not my lead corner. She’s there for kind of mental, emotional support. She just happened to be wearing the microphone. My lead corner was somebody else and she just repeats what they say because I can hear her. I know her voice. I tune in. So all she is is just a repeater box. All she does is repeat what they say, and she was repeating what she was told to say.

“Another point is coasting to me is completely different than somebody else. I’m not a striker. ... [I’m not someone] who sits on the outside and looks pretty and jabs and tends to run away. Coasting for me is don’t go in there with your head down and brawl and throw punches and wrestle and get in crazy scrambles. Coasting for me is completely different than what other people think coasting means.

“People can’t criticize and say, ‘Oh, he was coasting. That’s why he lost.’ Mizugaki came out in round three knowing he lost round one and two. Regardless of what the judges said, he knew he lost it. [Mizugaki and his camp] had actually came back to my corner after the fight and told me that they thought I had won the fight. ... They were telling him in the corner that they thought he had lost round one and two and he came out tough in round three.”