UFC Fight Night 29's Garett Whiteley: 'I would put money on me'

Everyone loves to throw out that ever-increasing statistic about just how little success non-Brazilian fighters have in the UFC when they head to South America.

But Garett Whiteley (7-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC), who makes his UFC debut tonight in Brazil, might not be buying into the hype, even if he’s more than a 2-to-1 underdog against Alan Patrick (10-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC), who also fights for the first time in the promotion.

Whiteley and Patrick’s lightweight fight opens up the preliminary card of UFC Fight Night 29, which takes place at Jose Correa Arena in Barueri, Sao Paulo, Brazil. The prelims air on FOX Sports 1 at 5 p.m. ET ahead of the main card on the same channel at 7 p.m.

Whiteley’s background in the U.S. Army, including service in Iraq, he believes has him well-prepared to go to battle against Patrick in a hostile environment.

“This traveling and stuff doesn’t bother me at all,” Whiteley told MMAjunkie.com Radio. “I’m still in the military and we travel all the time to different places. So this is old news for me, just the travel. I feel real comfortable, and everything feels right. This is the fun part for me. The fight’s the fun part, and everything else is the hard part. I would put money on me.”

Whiteley, from Indianapolis, also has a veteran expert in his corner. He trains with 20-fight UFC veteran Chris Lytle, who won 10 fight-night bonus awards in his time with the promotion before retiring a little more than two years ago. Lytle has fought for the UFC in Australia, Ireland and England and fought in Japan more than a dozen times.

But it’s not just Lytle’s advice about how to deal with life in the UFC on the road that Whiteley appreciates. It’s the advice he’s given so far on what to do what the cage door closes.

“The reason I love Chris is, he fights the fight he wants to fight,” Whiteley said. “That’s what he’s told me. We’ve planned and looked at some stuff about my opponent, but Chris said, ‘After all is said and done, you still have to go out and fight the way you fight.’ I think that’s the best advice he’s given me. You can’t plan too much. You just need to go out and do it.”

Training with Lytle in Indianapolis was kind of a stroke of luck for Whiteley. So was fighting, for that matter.

Whiteley was back from Iraq, and re-adjusting to life Stateside after his tours was proving to have some difficulties. Like many in the military, Whiteley said he was having some post-traumatic stress disorder issues.

All he wanted was for something to stoke those competitive fires again, and there was MMA.

“I wasn’t even planning on fighting when I started – I was just going in to train and see how I liked (training),” he said. “I trained for six or seven months and went to the fights with the guys I trained with and got to see them fight and win and be successful – knowing I can hang with those guys in the gym. I started looking for a fight, and the rest is history.”

Whiteley went 4-0 as an amateur before turning pro in 2010 and since then has seven finishes – with six coming in the first round.

Competing has been just what Whiteley needed.

“I have some anxiety issues. I don’t really like being in big crowds. It’s stuff a lot of guys deal with when they come back. You get a little bit of a short fuse and you get angry easier, it just seems like,” he said. “Mixed martial arts, I really feel like it saved me because I was going down a bad path. I wasn’t dealing with it. You get camaraderie in the gym like you do when you’re overseas and it gives you that edge and that excitement you miss. I credit MMA for pulling me out of that hole and helping me.”

And now he has an opportunity to make a major name for himself with a few things working against him – the first-time “octagon jitters,” fighting in Brazil against a Brazliian, being an underdog … but none of those things seem to matter to Whiteley.

Instead, he’s focused on the opportunity in front of him. He’s been on literally the world’s biggest stage with a lot more on the line than just an MMA fight. But given what he says MMA already has done for him, it should come as no surprise how important success in his UFC debut is for him.

“It’s awesome and rewarding feeling like everything you’ve worked for is coming to fruition – to perform on a big stage against the best guys in the world,” he said.”

For more on UFC Fight Night 29, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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