Evan Cutts Making His Mark at Legacy FC

Texas welterweight prospect Evan Cutts is riding high.

Undefeated in five fights so far, Cutts feels his game truly took a step forward last November with a win over the sibling of one of MMA’s all-time greats.

“In my third fight, I beat BJ (Penn’s) little brother Reagan, and just took it to him, and that’s what boosted me,” said Cutts. “I feel like I’m putting all my tools together and am becoming a complete fighter.

“My jiu-jitsu has always been improving and it’s the best part of my game, but I really feel like my striking and my wrestling has not only improved, but I’m blending it a lot more effectively than I ever have.”

Cutts will have an opportunity to showcase his growth on a national stage on Friday night live on AXS TV in a co-main event bout against fellow area up-and-comer Sean Spencer at Legacy FC 13 in Dallas.

“I know he has pretty decent boxing and a mean right hand,” said Cutts of Spencer. “He hits a lot of people moving backwards because of that and I think he’s best moving forward. I’m going to look to change that.

“I see some holes, especially when he gets taken down, or even when he gets a takedown, I see some holes. I don’t want to expound on it too much now, but I will say this, look for the way I work in my scrambles. I love when I get into scrambles because I feel like I’m a bit quicker on the trigger than a lot of people are.”

Having trained at some of the same facilities and come up in the sport at the same time, Cutts was asked if he feels his familiarity with Spencer will play any part in the outcome of the fight.

“I probably have just as much of insight on him as he does on me,” Cutts told MMAWeekly.com. “We’ll see if that nullifies itself.

“You can plan really, really well for a fight, but then the fight can go totally different. Game planning does matter, but when fights are live, things move so fast sometimes that it’s hard to implement what you want to do; so you’ve got to be ready in all your areas.”

The brother-in-law of Ultimate Fighter: Team Bisping vs. Team Miller alum Johnny Bedford, Cutts knows how important television exposure can be for a fighter’s career. Though don’t expect him to take the same route his relative has to get his break.

“I don’t know if I could keep my sanity (in the TUF house) to be totally honest,” joked Cutts. “I love people, I love working with people, but I also enjoy my quiet time, my sleep time; so I don’t know if I could survive all that.

“Opportunities are always there, especially on national TV (like AXS), if you can finish somebody with a fantastic submission or a pretty big knockout. There are always people watching. I want to be known as one of the top, if not the top, (170-pound) fighters out of DFW (Dallas/Fort Worth), because that’s how you get to the bigger scene.”

(Photo courtesy of Evan Cutts)