David Branch Talks About Having A Target On Him

In an interview with MMA Junkie, WSOF light heavyweight and middleweight champion David Branch (19-3) spoke about how he reacts knowing he has people in two different divisions gunning for him. He will defend the middleweight title Louis Taylor (13-3) at WSOF 34. It happens on December 31 at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It airs on the NBCSN prelims instead of the NBC main card. Here are highlights:

On being a champion: “Having the target on my back, having those two belts, knowing that there’s guys out there from different countries and different parts of the world that are training, they’re doing something, they’re thinking about fighting me – they’re thinking, ‘How am I going to beat this guy? I need to beat that guy’ – that makes me want to train. I already have a demon in me, and knowing that there’s somebody else out there that wants to take those things away from me that I worked so hard to get and that has taken me so long to get and certain things that are making substantial lifestyle changes in my life, knowing that there’s people out there that want to take that from me gives me a different push than other fighters have.”

On his new mindset: “When you’re the champion, you always see those fighters that say, ‘Don’t ever call me out,’ but that’s like an unrealistic thing because there’s always going to be people that are underneath you or coming up in the rankings that are going to need to fight you to be able to get the things that you have been able to get to facilitate for your lifestyle, and they’re going to want those things,” Branch said. “So you can’t get mad at these guys to a certain degree and say, ‘Don’t ever call me out,’ and be like that and take it on a personal level. I had to learn that. And once I learned that, then it stopped becoming personal. This is a business. This is the nature of the beast, and that’s how it’s always going to me. I can go out there and beat the heck out of the next guy and do it to the last guy or three guys from now and keep sending that message, ‘Don’t ever call me out,’ but somebody’s going to call me out. So that’s one thing I’ve accepted.”

On comparing himself to boxer Marvin Hagler: “He was a champion for so long, but I think it was the consistency of keeping those belts and defending them time and time again that maybe after a seven- or six-year course, that’s when he really started to get the recognition. I know that it made him bitter and stuff like that, but maybe it’s just what I need to get me that edge, to get me that chip on my shoulder. When I see other fighters that I know that I’m better than getting more recognition than myself, maybe that’s what keeps me inside that dungeon, keeping with that Clubber Lang mentality, and that’s exactly what I have. I’m a champion that holds two belts that still fights like he’s a hungry wolf and trains like he’s a hungry wolf at the bottom, and that’s what makes more unique and more dangerous than a lot of other fighters.”