Issue 111
February 2014
Being reared in a martial arts family helped the UFC’s hottest new welterweight, Brandon ‘Ruckus‘ Thatch, reach the biggest stage in MMA
It’s always a good thing when your boss takes notice of your work – perhaps even more so when you’re a professional fighter and your head honcho is Dana White, one of the most powerful men in mixed martial arts.
Despite coming off a clearly scintillating victory against former top contender Paulo Thiago in Brazil, when Brandon Thatch, the UFC’s newest welterweight star, is asked about the plaudits the UFC boss has thrown his way recently he’s taken aback.
“I’m still waiting to shake his hand for that,” Thatch states, when asked about White’s comments, which included calling ‘Ruckus’ a “f**king stud.”
“I got to speak to him during a TUF try-out once, and I was trying to corner him backstage to tell him how much of a pleasure it was to be fighting for the organization, but I wasn’t able to. To hear him talk so highly of me is pretty cool.”
Thatch speaks humbly about the positive response he’s received from fans and Zuffa top brass, and his approach is more mature than most fighters in his position. However, it would be foolish to think his demeanor is a charade, because, as he says, the discipline of a martial artist was instilled in him at a tender age.
“I’ve always been into martial arts,” he explains. “My father, Clarence Thatch, was also a martial artist and my instructor; while my grandfather was a professional boxer. It’s something I’ve grown up with. It’s always been a part of my life.”
Thatch trained almost religiously until he was 14, but then felt a little burned out and drifted away from the dojo like a lot of teenagers do. “However, whenever I’d go to my dad’s gym I would see these guys who would fight on the weekend, and they’d be praised and sometimes they’d be paid for some of the stuff I was doing on the streets for free,” he says. “So I told my dad I wanted to fight for money, and he said to me that if I trained for six months he’d get me my first fight. So, when I was around 17, I had my first fight – a full-contact kickboxing match.”
Despite being brought up in a fighting family and the ultra-competitive MMA scene in Colorado, Thatch admits that while he’s known for a number of years he has a talent for martial arts it was only recently he realized just how far he could possibly take it. Although he still shakes his head with disbelief sometimes at the notion he’s competing in the UFC. “It’s crazy,” he laughs.
While he might be a little awestruck at his current position, those around him certainly aren’t. After defeating another top prospect, Mike Rhodes, last March, in a fight many speculated was a decider for a UFC deal, opportunity knocked.
“Any time I fight I take it seriously but it’s not a punishment to go out there and fight, it’s a challenge to see where I’m currently at,” he says. “I’m constantly being tested with the guys they’re putting in front of me and I’m still figuring out where I stand in this division. I wasn’t nervous, it was just another chance to go out there and prove something to myself.”
On the back of some time spent in the camp of UFC welterweight great Georges St Pierre for his fight against Carlos Condit in late 2012, Thatch bagged submission glory against Rhodes and, as had been predicted, the UFC came calling.
But even Thatch admits bagging the ‘Knockout of the Night’ cash bonus in his UFC debut against Justin Edwards in August was beyond his wildest dreams. He recalls: “I believe very strongly in things happening when they’re supposed to and not getting too far ahead of myself, but when I got the call it was emotional. It was a dream come true.
“Then, when I won ‘Knockout of the Night’ I was on cloud nine. I was with a couple of people afterwards and I was telling them how my debut couldn’t have gone better. The icing on the cake was earning the $50,000 bonus because that helps with bills, extra training time and things like that. It was unreal.”
Thatch then faced ex top 10 ranked Paulo Thiago in Brazil, which as history shows, hasn’t always gone well for Americans. But he didn’t let the atmosphere overawe him, blitzing the Brazilian special forces cop with strikes, and forcing him to submit in a little over two minutes.
Thatch says: “The atmosphere was so thick on fight night you could cut it with a knife. I was nervous about the crowd, but when it came to fight time I was ready. I’m very good at capitalizing on openings, and if I feel I should go hard then I will, and that’s what I did.”
And as for what’s to come in 2014, he adds: “Hopefully, I’m able to stay healthy, stay as active and make as many new fans as possible. Most importantly, though, I want to have fun and see how far this journey takes me.”
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