Tyson Chartier Cautiously Earmarks Fall Return For Calvin Kattar

Mandatory Credit: Mike Roach - Zuffa LLC


Tyson Chartier, head coach of featherweight contender, Calvin Kattar is tentatively targeting a return to action for his student this coming fall, as the team take a cautious approach with the Methan native following his UFC on ABC 1 defeat to former division champion, Max Holloway.

Chartier, who heads up the New England Cartel, guided the emergence of the above mentioned, Kattar over the course of last year, as well as bantamweight contender, Rob Font, who returned in spectacular fashion with a first round knockout win over former WSOF 135-pound best, one-time title challenger, Marlon Moraes at UFC Vegas 17 in December.

Returning to the Octagon with Kattar in tow on 'Fight Island' in the featherweight contender's second consecutive main event outing, Chartier and co, met with the blistering Holloway in a five round headliner, as the promotion debuted on the ABC network. 

Putting his two-fight winning run on the line against Holloway in a potential featherweight title-eliminator, Kattar suffered a particularly damaging and worrying unanimous decision loss to the Hawaiian, absorbing a quite frankly distressing two-hundred and seventy-four total head strikes throughout the twenty-five-minute clash. 

UFC president, Dana White sternly informed Kattar's corner to elect against allowing him to fulfil any post-fight media obligations, instead, organising immediate transportation to a medical facility for Kattar -- who laughed off White's calls for concern. 

Speaking with MMA Junkie recently, Chartier provided an update on Kattar, detailing how he explained to the renowned striker that he had earned his period of rest and recovery following a lenghty camp, stemming back to his first round knockout win over former title challenger, Ricardo Lamas.

"He's (Calvin Kattar) good," Chartier said. "So Calvin's really been in fight camp since before the (Ricardo) Lamas fight. So ike a year-and-a-half, he's just been going from fight to fight to fight with dinged up hands, broke his nose three times. He's been a beast, dieting through holidays, dieting through birthdays, missing family events. After that fight, we could have tried to come back fast. We could have made the same mistake other teams make and try to push it because it was really no technical injuries or anything like that, that would've stopped us from being able to fight. But after the fight I was like, 'Listen, you earned a break.'"

"So our plan was chill out, travel with your family, help Rob (Font_ mentally, just kinda be there for the team and just take some time away from the gym. He's still in the gym. He's still watching guys train. We're not letting him do any contact training at all. I have a very conservative approach to coming back from these things, so I'm saying six months no contact at all. We just cleared him to start jogging, working very close with the UFC Performance Institute. We've gotten a few MRIs after the fight, everything is good, but we're still being super cautious and probably even more conservative than the doctors would require somebody to. I know it's more conservative."

The January loss to Holloway snapped a two-fight winning run for the puncher, following a decisive step-in elbow and follow up strikes knockout win over longtime contender, Jeremy Stephens in May last, prior to a July Fight Island headliner against recent feature, Dan Ige -- where he scored a unanimous decision win. 

It'll mark a prolonged period of rest and recovery for Kattar, with Chartier tentatively earmarking a potential return for his student this fall.

"So just wait until July, hit that six-month mark, and then get a new MRI just to be safe, and then get back to training slowly, and we'll just see how he progresses," Chartier said. "Fight again in the fall. So he still gets two fights this year, he gets to rest his head for at least six months, probably more. We're gonna come back better, and he's still gonna learn a lot from that fight. His confidence didn't dwindle at all from that performance."

"He got to feel that level of probably the best featherweight that's ever walked this earth and realised, 'I kind of laid an egg, he fought really good, I felt it, and now I wanna get there.' So I think it wasn't a discouraging experience; it was motivating, and I think when people see him come back this fall, it'll be just like Brian Ortega. That last loss is behind you, and you're on to the next thing."

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