폴 이사님, 메인 (유월 14, 2016) – Like so many headline-grabbing heavy hitters with New England Fights, Maine native 브랜든 Bushaw (1-2) had nothing left to prove in his combat sports career.
Bushaw parlayed his undefeated state championship season as a Westbrook High School senior in 1999 into a college wrestling career at Michigan State University, where he was a teammate of UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans (19-5-1).
“I was with my high school girlfriend (킨 티아), now my wife, so I knew we would always have ties to Maine,” Bushaw said. “Other than being on wrestling scholarship, I thought I was done fighting.”
The couple settled in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and opened Island Bar and Grill, which they have owned and operated for a dozen years.
It is a good, comfortable life. Extended family visited and found the area so alluring that they stayed permanently.
Those competitive juices never completely evaporated, 그러나.
“I had teammates who turned to mixed martial arts,” Bushaw said. “I watched them, and as I approached 30, it became a bucket list thing. Now here I am, 17 fights later.”
Bushaw, 35, explained the journey in a phone interview as he prepared for his fourth professional bout, a featherweight clash with Auburn’s 매트 "켄 인형"데닝 (3-2) NEF "에서 24: Promised Land” on 토요일, 유월 18 폴 이사님의는 Androscoggin 은행 Colisee에서.
The fight is Bushaw’s first on his original home turf since a 2014 loss to Elias Leland at the 135-pound limit. He ascends to 145 파운드, where he admitted he is more comfortable (“at my advanced age,” Bushaw quipped) for the confrontation with Denning.
“It’s weird, because I thought I was done competing up that way when I graduated from high school, but when I go home after all these years, all the old friends that I haven’t seen for years turn out to watch me fight,” Bushaw said. “I’ve fought all over, but any time I fight in Myrtle Beach or in Maine, it’s more special.”
Some athletes return to their competitive arena because they miss the allure of the cheering crowd.
That’s true of Bushaw, to a degree, although even the spectator interest he drew with the Blue Blazes and Spartans pales by comparison to what greets him surrounding the NEF hexagon.
“It’s nothing like high school or even college wrestling,” Bushaw said. “You show up and there’s two, 세, four thousand people watching. It’s so different. You don’t get multiple chances to fight in a week or even a single weekend. It lasts a few minutes and then it’s the highest of the highs or the lowest of the lows.”
The physical toll and the necessary complement of skills also exceed what Bushaw knew in his youth.
He made that discovery about a minute into his initial amateur bout.
“MMA is more dynamic than wrestling. I remember my first fight, the guy picked me up and threw me down and I landed on my head,” Bushaw said. “I remember thinking, ‘This was probably not such a good idea,’ but I found a way to get the win.”
“You can be better than a guy in four different categories, but if he’s better in just one, he’s capable of beating you," 그는 계속했다. “You think things are going your way and then it’s the biggest letdown in the world.”
There’s a camaraderie in that unpredictable realm that only veterans of the cage can fully understand. Bushaw, who has trained with the likes of childhood friend Jamie Harrison and Amos Collins, noted that he has become cordial with almost all his prior opponents.
데닝 (3-2) is one of the few with whom Bushaw (1-2) became “friends” on social media before their fight.
“It’s kind of strange, but all those things go out the window,” Bushaw said. “He’s fought my buddy Dom Cofone. He’s a local boy. I know it’s going to be a tough challenge for me.”
In many respects it is a crossroads bout for Bushaw, who admitted that he has considered retirement from the sport.
“Probably my last five fights I’ve gone in saying, ‘One more fight and I’m done,’ and then I keep going. I don’t shy away from anybody,"고 말했다. “My last fight was against a kid who was 23 and he’d been in Thailand for two years or some (물건). That was one time when I might have said, ‘What am I doing?'
“For me it’s family, then business, then fighting. For a lot of these younger guys, fighting is first, and that makes it a challenge.”
의 오프닝 벨 (Bell) 유월 18 설정되어 7 시이. NEF "티켓 24: 약속의 땅은 "시작 $25 과에서 확인할 수있다 www.TheColisee.com 또는 Colisee 박스 오피스를 호출하여 207.783.2009, 신장 525.
이벤트 및 전투 카드 업데이트에 대한 자세한 내용은, 에서 승진의 웹 사이트를 방문하시기 바랍니다 www.NewEnglandFights.com. 게다가, 당신은 NEF의 비디오를 감상 할 수 있습니다 www.youtube.com/NEFMMA, 트위터 @nefights에 그들을 따라 공식 페이스 북 그룹에 가입 "뉴 잉글랜드의 경기는 관중을."
