Former MMA star Seth Petruzelli recently spoke with FOX Sports about his new role as a striking coach at the WWE Performance Center.
The man who once knocked out Kimbo Slice in 14 seconds knows a thing or two about how to throw his fists. In the ‘entertainment’ world of pro wrestling, do pro wrestlers really need to know how to throw effective punches?
“A lot of guys asked about that, too, and that was one of my main concerns” Petruzelli said. “Like, these guys are going to hate me because ‘We don’t need to learn this crap if we’re not doing the same stuff; we’re not really trying to hit the person’ but Triple H really wanted them to get a real look at it — MMA is so huge now and people know like, ‘Oh, he dropped his hands’ or ‘Oh, he got caught with a punch’, so they are catching on to the phony stuff.
Petruzelli said he’s worked closely with several wrestlers, including Baron Corbin, Apollo Crews and Simon Gotch. “Becky Lynch is another one,” he said. “She joined the gym and signed up and started doing jiu-jitsu like crazy. She’s really into it as well.”
Check out the full interview at FOXSports.com.