Aug-24-2009
Chris Tuchscherer – Welcome to the World of “The Crowbar”
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By Thomas Gerbasi
With a life once consumed by fast cars and professional prizefighting, it’s a safe bet to assume that Chris Tuchscherer was never one to be spending his days lounging in his easy chair catching up on television reruns. But after spending upwards of 60 nights a summer on the track in modified race cars while still juggling a promising fight career that seemed to be going nowhere, the North Dakota native decided something had to go.
“It’s funny how things work in life,” he said. “I had been racing for the last six, seven years, and racing and training at the same time, doing all that at once takes away from everything you do. So I decided that I was gonna take this fighting thing seriously. I had been doing it for five years and not going anywhere. So if I was gonna take this serious, I had to drop something. And fighting is what I love to do more, so last year, after the summer was over, I sold everything and dedicated all my time to fighting.”
It was a good call, considering that Tuchscherer will now make his UFC debut this Saturday night in Portland against former world title challenger Gabriel Gonzaga. But this wasn’t just a spur of the moment decision for the 33-year old, who had been building up to this ever since he got a phone call from future UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar to train with him in Minnesota two years ago.
It was the break Tuchscherer - a two-time Division II All-American wrestler for Minnesota State University Moorhead - needed. A pro since 2004, when he debuted with a decision win over current light heavyweight prospect Krzysztof Soszynski, Tuchscherer was building a decent resume on the local circuit but not getting any bites from the big shows. He admits now that treading water in the fight game made it difficult to stay on track.
“It’s actually hard to keep the focus,” he said. “Then two years ago I got a call when Brock started fighting in the UFC. I’m pretty close to him and he called me and asked me to be one of his training partners. I had worked with him before he got signed to the UFC, and when he called me up, that put a fire under my ass again. It was a good opportunity to take my training to another level by being around Brock and the coaches and people he brings in.”
Now training with Lesnar, Greg Nelson and Marty Morgan in Minnesota, Tuchscherer has upped his game, winning seven of his last eight bouts since fall of 2007 to improve to 17-1, with 1 NC. Among those he defeated were veteran journeymen Jimmy Ambriz and Travis Fulton, and UFC vet Branden Lee Hinkle, with his only loss coming at the hands of Travis Wiuff in his third fight of the night in an April 2008 Yamma tournament. And though he tried out, but didn’t make the cut, for season ten of The Ultimate Fighter, Tuchscherer will instead get his shot in the Octagon against Gonzaga. That’s a rough welcoming gift for anyone, but he likes it.
“I’m just excited to get in there and see where I’m at and gauge myself,” he said. “You’re never at the level where you want to be, you’ve got to keep training every day, and there’s always more to learn. I’m not done learning by far, so I want to get in there, see where I’m at, and go from there. Right now I see Gabriel Gonzaga as a very big opportunity for me to make a name for myself. He’s a tough guy, but they’re all tough guys, and I’m a tough guy too. I hope he’s taking me lightly, and if he is looking at me as a no-namer coming up there to help him get himself back on track from the last couple losses that he’s had, he’s sadly mistaken.”
If Tuchscherer sounds supremely confident, it’s because he is. Not in an arrogant way, but in a quiet way that says ‘hey, I belong here and I’m going to prove it.’ That type of confidence can do wonders for soothing nerves before a big fight, and it doesn’t hurt that after his four round win over Hinkle in March and going five combined rounds in the one-night Yamma tournament, he’s used to swimming in some deep waters, something he isn’t convinced Gonzaga is prepared to do.
“I believe one of the advantages I have over Gonzaga is that I don’t think he’s been pushed like I’m going to push,” he said. “I like to push my guys to the edge. I’m in their face all the time, just pushing, pushing, pushing. I’ve been in those three and four round wars and I know what it’s like to be in that situation. Like Randy Couture, he’s been in those wars before, and when you’ve actually felt going three, four, or five rounds, it’s something you’ve felt, so you’re not worried about it.”
But that’s not all, as the Fargo resident has another secret weapon as he gets ready for his first UFC fight – Lesnar.
“It’s just helped me to be around him,” said Tuchscherer of his time with the heavyweight champ. “I’ve been around him through all this the last couple years, and being at every UFC with him - in the back, at the weigh-ins and press conferences - has helped me out a lot as far as knowing that nothing’s going to be a big shock to me. I know how the UFC works when we go out there the week before the fight, and that helps take a lot of pressure off. When you’ve never done any of that before and you get put in those situations, it stresses a guy out. I can’t say what I’m gonna feel like getting into that cage that night in front of all those people, but Brock and I are really good friends and we’ve had lots of talks as far as ‘this is what to expect’, ‘don’t worry about this’, ‘this guy ain’t no different than you’, and stuff like that.”
Lesnar even went as far as to give Tuchscherer a new nickname – “The Crowbar”.
“I had a different nickname before,” said the Rugby native, who used to be known as “Tuchy” (pronounced Tookie). “Me and Brock were sitting there talking about it one day and saying that I need a new nickname. Tuchscherer is such a hard name to pronounce and Brock is the guy that actually threw that name out there. We were like ‘Hell yeah, that sounds cool.’ He told me, ‘you’re just a tough SOB and you’ve just got that ‘Crowbar’ look.’ (Laughs) So we went with it. It started out as a joke but then it grew on us.”
Now he’s looking to grow on UFC fans, which shouldn’t be difficult given his aggressive style and affable personality, not to mention a cool and catchy nickname.
“I hope everybody walks out of there (on Saturday night) saying to themselves ‘The Crowbar, where the hell did this guy come from?’”
As for a return to racing, eh, not right now.
“To tell you the truth, I don’t miss it at all because good things are happening to me now with my fighting career,” he said. “I went to watch one race in Fargo, my hometown, and that’s all. And this is from a guy who used to race 60 nights a summer.”
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