There was never any doubt about the talent possessed by Los Angeles-born welterweight Brad Blackburn, but in the first half of his seven year pro MMA career, the key to beating him was a simple one – just get him to round two.
“Basically, if you look at my record, I used to be able to fight flat-out for just one round,” he said. “Every fight that ended in the first round, I won. And up until two years ago, every fight that went to a decision or to the third round, I lost.”
He’s not exaggerating either. Up until a split decision win over Gustavo Machado in 2006, hearing the bell for the second round was Blackburn’s kryptonite, and he had the 0-7-1 record in fights going past the opening stanza to show for it. Of course, that kind of put a damper on his 8-0 record in one rounders, but as he worked two jobs to support his family, full-time training was a luxury he didn’t have, and his competitive nature didn’t allow him to refuse those last minute calls for fights.
“I’ve always been working two jobs, investing all over the place, I’d stop working and everybody would be off practice by the time I was off work, and I just wasn’t in a situation where I could really train,” said Blackburn, a former loan officer and framer. “But I’d be working and someone would call me up, ‘hey, you want a fight next week?’ Okay.”
Early on, Blackburn would put together two knockout wins over UFC vet Pat Healy, and when he did train, he was working with the likes of Jeff Monson and Dennis Hallman, but after a dismal 2005 that saw him drop all four of his fights that year, including a third round TKO defeat at the hands of current lightweight contender Roger Huerta, ‘Bad Brad’ had hit a wall.
He would probably only get one more shot at turning things around, and when the IFL came calling and he was able to pound out his first decision win – over Machado – there was a ray of hope for Blackburn. Over his next six fights, he went 3-2-1, but included was a decision win over current UFC welterweight Chris Wilson, a 40 second stoppage of Octagon vet Jay Hieron, and a spectacular one punch knockout of Delson Heleno.
“When I got in the IFL, I started taking it a little more serious, and when I felt like I was outclassing top guys, I was like ‘you know what, I got this far without even trying, I’m 30 years old now, I need to give it a hundred percent,’” he said.
With that commitment in place, it was inevitable that Blackburn would soon be getting a call from the UFC. That first call came to be a late replacement on the UFC 85 card in London, but a lack of a passport scrapped that opportunity. Weeks later, he would be contacted again, this time to take on James Giboo on Saturday’s Anderson Silva vs James Irvin card at The Palms in Las Vegas.
“I knew the opportunity would come sooner than later if I kept performing,” said Blackburn, who wasn’t thrown off by the speed in which the July 19th card was put together. “I was ready to go. I’ve been having a real tough time getting fights, so I figured it would be a real tough fight on short notice – that’s just the way it works. I figured it was probably gonna be a bad ass in two weeks or something like that (Laughs), so I tried to stay ready to go.”
And he wants UFC fans to know that he is more than a 12-9-1, 1 NC record.
“It (the record) is very deceiving because I’m well-rounded, and I’ve got plenty of experience,” he said. He’s also taken the leap to becoming a full-time fighter.
“I’m trying to fight full-time right now,” he said. “I’m even selling my house so that I’ve got some money. I’m 31 and I want to give it 120 percent. I just started doing that in the sport and I’ve been doing well, so I’m gonna go for it right now. A lot of people start fighting and buy houses; I’m selling my house so I can fight full-time now. (Laughs) I want to just train and get in there and try to perform. I’m okay with failing if I know I gave it 100 percent.”
His family is behind him just as strongly.
“They know how big of a deal it is to me right now, and it could all work out, but it’s a gamble, like any business or investment,” he said. “I just feel like I’m gonna be investing a year and half, two years into this, and hopefully it will be a good investment.”
At the very least, Blackburn doesn’t lack confidence, a key factor in any fighter’s success, and when you ask him where he stands in one of the sport’s toughest divisions, he doesn’t mince words.
“I’m capable of beating everybody,” he said. “If you watch my recent fights, even if you watch my old ones when I was out of shape, I’ve never been outclassed, I just got tired. The way I see it, if I know I can fight three rounds, I have total confidence that I can win the fight.”
On Saturday, he gets his shot to prove himself a prophet in the Octagon.
“I want the fans to see me fight and say ‘this guy looked pretty damn good,’” said Blackburn. “Then they’ll look at my record and have a question mark. And hopefully my next fight will get rid of that question mark.”
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