Issue 024

April 2007

WEC lightweight champion Razor Rob McCullough cuts a striking figure. 5’8” and fighting at 155 lbs, he is a stocky and powerful striker with a string of KO victories on his resumé and an eight-fight winning streak to boast about. A K-1 kickboxer as well as MMA fighter, McCullough captured the vacant belt in January after pounding out veteran kickboxer Kit Cope in the first round. Scheduled to defend his title in May, Razor Rob let us into the gym he trains and teaches out of, the Huntington Beach Ultimate Training Centre, to take a closer look at the colourful ink that covers much of his body.  

The 29-year old first had his taste of ink on skin when he was only 17, plumping for his name in old English script down his right shoulder. Unlike many tattoo fans, he wasn’t bitten by the bug at first and waited some time before getting a follow up. “I never really wanted to get tattoos,” he says with a laugh. 

His next choice? A shamrock of course – he is half Irish after all! It is with this kind of thinking that Rob approaches his tattoos. “Everything I have has a story behind it” he says, preferring to plan and think his designs over before committing them to his skin.  

Most of his tattoos have come from friends who operate as tattooists in Huntington Beach, a place where there is no shortage of studios. Friends from high school who have gone on to become artists have helped contribute to his collection of designs. As he explains, “almost all of the guys who have worked on me are my buddies”.  

With plenty of coverage already, you would be mistaken for thinking Rob isn’t planning his next work. “I’m thinking about getting something on my neck, but I don’t know, once you cross that line…” he says, referring to the commitment to a publicly visible tattoo. For now all of his ink is easily covered with a long sleeved shirt, which he likes. “People were like ‘don’t get a scary face on your arm’ but I don’t care, it’s my body. I’m living my life, I’ll do what I want.”  

Rob’s life is just where he wants it right now, though he wonders out loud during our conversation what would happen if he were to get a ‘real’ job. He’s worked plenty of shitty jobs in his time, and with his career as a fighter and kickboxing teacher firmly established, there’s no going back for him. “Every morning I wake up with the biggest smile on my face,” he says. “I get to do the only thing I love, I get to show people how to fight and I get paid to beat people up!”