There is a hint of glee in his voice when he talks about the end of the week ritual that has steeled the nerves and resolve of the Factory X gang. Yet even though the sparring sessions are intense, those times in the cage have strengthened the bonds of the teammates, something Gutierrez always craved but never truly experienced until he arrived in Colorado from Texas.
“The gym that I started out with in Texas, it crumbled overnight, and so I was left training in my garage, and where I’m from, you have to drive an hour and a half, two hours to get to the city and find some really good training and good guidance,” Gutierrez said. “So when I left to come here, I longed for that family atmosphere, the family culture surrounding everything. Ever since then, everything’s been going good, but that’s what I was lacking and I needed that.”
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That’s good for the mind. As for the body, yeah, Gutierrez gets that taken care of, too.
“We have such amazing talent at the gym,” he said. “Everyone in there is so good, and I’m not lying when I say 90 percent of the team could be in the UFC. When you have that much skill and that much talent there, every day is a grind. There’s not an easy day. So our preparation for fights is an everyday thing.”
