Russell Brewer Reflects on Five-Second Knockout; Representing Dallas versus Amarillo on June 10th!

Photo Credit – Cortni Gibbs of Envi Photography

DALLAS, TX, May 31, 2011 – When it comes to Texas MMA knockouts in 2011, no other finish has delivered as quickly as Russell Brewer’s devastating five-second knockout of Christopher Golden. The quick finish was the highlight of 24/7’s inaugural show on April 8th at the Midland Horseshoe Arena, an event that also included names like Will Campuzano, Cody Pfister, Daniel “Jacare” Almeida, and more. Not a bad night at all for a debuting fighter with MMA beginnings in the back of a garage.

This coming June 10^th in Amarillo’s Azteca Music Hall, Russell Brewer will get an opportunity for an encore performance as he fights for 24/7 once again, this time representing Dallas and Central Texas in 24/7’s Amarillo versus Dallas event (event info / fight card). Will lighting strike twice? That remains to be seen but read on and learn more about Russell Brewer after watching this brief video of his last fight.

Russell, tell us a little bit about your training background.

I’ve been training for about 4 or 5 years. I started off fighting in a garage with a bunch of tough guys that fought as amateurs. Now, I train at Octagon MMA in Downtown Dallas which is probably one of the best schools in Texas.

Nice. So you’re out there with Bruno Bastos. What’s it like training under him?

To be honest, I didn’t realize how privileged we were until I noticed everyone coming up to me, asking me if I trained with Bruno. It was only then that I really started digging into everything about him. He’s awesome – a world of knowledge about jiu-jitsu.

The Nova União team is really strong and concentrated in the Dallas area. Do you ever get a chance to use that to your advantage as far as cross-training with the other academies?

Yeah, there’s a school in Cedar Hill, Team Trinity, that is also Nova União. Sometimes their guys come down to Octagon to train as well so we get a chance to roll with them.

Are you originally from the Dallas/Fort Worth area?

Yeah, I was originally from around the Oklahoma border but I move down here when I was three so I’ve been living in Mesquite and Dallas pretty much my whole life.

Besides MMA and rolling, do you have any other hobbies out there that occupy your time?

<laughs> Yeah, I probably have too many! I play indoor and outdoor soccer, I play football whenever I get the chance, and I play pretty much every sport I can. It’s kind of frustrating because sometimes fighting gets in the way of all the other sports I love to play.

It sounds like you enjoy an overall passion for being an athlete. How did you get into MMA to begin with and what is it you like about fighting?

I was in the military. Whenever I was 17, I went to the Army National Guard. In basic training, they taught us combat jiu-jitsu and that was my first experience with jiu-jitsu. Rolling around with guys bigger than me, I was able to not get tapped out and I was picking everything they did. So after I got out of basic, I just started looking up jiu-jitsu with BJJPenn.com, etc. to look up different stuff. For some reason, I was able to pick it up a lot faster than all my friends who’d watch the same video so I guess it was just a knack I had to do every single move without missing a step. For a long time, me and my friends, we’d practice in our living rooms and stuff. Then, a friend of mine, Eli Tamez who trains at Octagon told me about the guys that were training out of the garage and since we didn’t have the money to afford a gym, we went over there. They had 3 or 4 fighters training there and they’re all pro now. You got Brad Mitchell, Roy Spoon, Quaint Kempf, and then it was me, Eli, and Elijah. Now we’re all pro. Its crazy how we all started as amateurs like that and now we’re all doing pretty well.

With that background of banging it the garage, plus your current training at Octagon, you’ve probably been exposed to plenty of different ways to fight, both technical and brawling. So how you describe your own style?

Well, I guess the best part about me as a fighter is that I’m well-rounded but that’s also the worst part. I don’t really specialize in anything. I feel like my striking is really good from standing and banging for so long because I had to learn how to defend myself but my jiu-jitsu was lacking. Then I went over to Bruno’s and my jiu-jitsu has gotten pretty good but I’m not working on my striking so much. So it’s all getting evened out but if I guess if I had to say which one I liked, I’d have to say striking because you get so much recognition doing good standing up.

I bet you know that pretty well, considering your last fight against Christopher Golden at 24/7’s first event last a grand total of 5 seconds. Tell us about that fight.

Man, to be honest with you, I was really nervous going into that fight. Chris was 0-3 but two guys from Odessa that were training with us, Clay Hantz and Brandon Jones, they were telling me, “man, that dude is strong… he’s a power lifter… he’s going to want to wrestle you,” and telling me I had to be really careful. I know if I were 0-3, I’d be training my tail off trying to win so I knew he was going to come in there and really be prepared for this fight. I was nervous going in there, especially because it was a fight I was supposed to win. You never know with that. I actually told my coach that I thought he was going to try and catch my leg kick because that was the first thing I did on both of my YouTube videos. If he was watching that at all, he’d have seen that and try to take me down. So during the fight, I faked the kick, threw the punch, and then came back with the kick and the knee (which was supposed to be a kick) got the knockout. It didn’t hit me until a couple of days later what really happened, but it was kind of crazy.

It definitely looked the part. So what was it like fighting for 24/7, a new promotion throwing their first event?

I’ve fought on a lot of amateur shows and I’ve also cornered a lot of guys, friends that have fought on pro shows… 24/7 is by far the best show I’ve been on. The hotels were great. I could call Fabian (Butler) and tell him I thought anything was wrong and he’d drive over there if needed. Everything was taken care of. Everything was high-class in that they really cared what the fighters had and how they felt with hotels, etc. I never really got that as an amateur. It was awesome. I told Fabian after the fight that whenever they held another show, let me know and I’d be there.

So that brings us to now. You’re fighting for 24/7 against James Chandler at their Amarillo vs. Dallas event on June 10^th in Amarillo. What do you know about your opponent?

I know he’s an athlete as well, from England I believe. He played soccer and football in college. Really, he sounds a lot like me. I also played soccer pretty much my whole life and also played football. I’m guessing he’ll be a pretty well-rounded athlete. He looks strong, pretty stocky guy. The problem is that he’s never had any experience in fighting so I have absolutely no idea what he’s going to throw at me. With that last fight, I had a game plan. With this one, I’ve just got to do what I do best. It’s going to be a tough fight, I’m sure.

Think it’ll go as far as last time?

<laughs> Yeah, I definitely think it will go longer than last time but I plan on this ending quick. I don’t want to stay in there with somebody who’s scrappy and somebody who’ll bring the fight to me. I want to put him in his position, put him on his back and make sure the ref gets in there and stops it.

Would you prefer that ending to be another knockout or a submission?

I really don’t have a preference. It was really good getting the recognition of the last knockout but I believe as long as I get in there and do well, everybody will still see that my last fight wasn’t a fluke. That’s the biggest question right now for people, wondering whether I am really good or if I just threw the perfect combo that got my opponent.

Where do you hope to take your MMA career in 2011?

I plan on going to the UFC. I see anything else as not fulfilling my purpose in MMA. I fight because I want to have an avenue of influence to other children, kids out there that grew up with hard lives in hard neighborhoods. I want to be able to stand up there and tell those kids that fighting isn’t about just being tough, it’s about having discipline. With that influence, I could go and talk to a lot of people. That’s why I fight, that’s why I want to fight in the UFC. I’m not in this for the fame, I just want to steer people on the right path as my ultimate goal.

Any last words prior to your fight Russell?

I just want to say first of all, that I thank God and give him all the glory. He’s everything in everything that I do. Thanks to my coaches Sayif Saud and Bruno Bastos along with all my training partners. Thanks to my sponsors also.

Come and watch on June 10^th guys. Don’t go the snack bar so you don’t miss anything!

Russell Brewer – Five-Second Knockout – April 8, 2011