After near-miss on 'TUF 17,' Kito Andrews pushing for breakthrough moment

Kito Andrews is setting out to prove that there’s more than little guys at Team Alpha Male.

The famed California-based camp is famous for its lighter-weight fighters, led by former featherweight champion and founder Urijah Faber. But while the team’s elite-level fighters all are 155 pounds and under, it has some up-and-comers who fight north of the weights it has become known for.

Andrews (10-2), a welterweight, meets Max Griffin (5-1) in the main event of West Coast Fighting Championship 5 tonight, and he hopes to punch his ticket to a show like the UFC where he can join teammates like Faber, Joseph Benavidez, Danny Castillo and others.

WFC 5 takes place at Jackson Sports Arena in Team Alpha Male’s home base of Sacramento, Calif. The main card can be seen via online pay-per-view.

“They give me a lot of love, and I’ve been working my way up the ranks,” Andrews told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio) of his relationship with his Team Alpha Male gym mates. “I’m about to hopefully make my breakthrough into the big shows. I train with guys like Anthony Avila and Andre Fili, who are also on this card. But as a welterweight, I move like a flyweight or a bantamweight.”

Andrews comes into WFC 5 with an impressive eight-fight win streak, including five stoppages. He hasn’t lost in more than five years, and that setback came at the hands of current UFC fighter Seth Baczynski.

Andrews has been on the cusp of breaking through to the big time. On this past 17th season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” Andrews made the cut to try out with 27 other fighters. But in the elimination round, he dropped a decision to Kevin Gastelum – who then went on to surprise just about everyone by winning the entire show with an upset of Uriah Hall this past month.

Andrews knows he can hang with the likes to Gastelum, and if Gastelum can win “TUF,” then Andrews believes he still has time to make some waves in this sport – even though he’s 35.

“If you get a chance to watch me fight, and you see my athleticism, you tell me how old you think I am just from watching me move – and then we’ll discuss that,” he said. “I’ve been an above-average athlete my entire life. I played college football, ran track, set school records and county records. I’m not just an average guy coming off the street.”

Like Andrews, Griffin also has been on the edge of getting to the next level. But on Season 16 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” he, too, was sent home after a loss in the elimination round when he was submitted in a sudden-victory round by Matt Secor.

But even though they’ve both got that “TUF” experience, Andrews said Griffin takes his pride in the matter just a little too far, and that’s rubbed him the wrong way.

“He’s one of those guys, he thinks he’s better than he is,” Andrews said. “He was on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ like me, and he thinks that’s his claim to fame. I made it on the show, but that’s not a testament to your skill – that’s a TV show. We got picked because we’re marketable. I lost to get in the house. I’m really looking to do something spectacular.”

And that potential for something spectacular has a little extra push behind it for tonight’s main event in Sacramento.

Andrews may have pushed one of Griffin’s buttons with one specific word at kickoff event for Friday’s fight, and that appears to be what his opponent has been using for motivation.

“They said I disrespected him because I called him unintelligent,” Andrews said. “He made a video for me to remind me he was the first WFC champion. I had been looking for all his fight videos, and then he made this video with all these highlights, and I was like, ‘Perfect!’ I had been looking for all his videos and I couldn’t find anything. I called him ‘unintelligent’ at a press conference.

“So there’s a lot of controversy for this one and I’m looking forward to it.”

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