Robert Whittaker and Anderson Silva, Derek Brunson had to travel halfway around the world to get his mojo back. And in New Zealand, he got it.
“That was the perfect fight for me and that’s what I needed to get back in the win column,” Brunson said of his June knockout of Dan Kelly, which only took 76 seconds. “I was stacking up against some of the top guys in my division and ultimately when it was said and done, my hand wasn’t getting raised. So it was time to take a step back and understand what I needed to regain my momentum.”
What he needed to do was tone down the outbreak of the wrestler’s disease that had broken out. In other words, he needed to remember that he still had a wrestling game and didn’t need to just punch everybody, and that at this level, it’s not always how you attack, but when. Kelly, winner of four straight heading into the Auckland bout, turned out to be the perfect foil.
“Honestly, I see myself going into every fight and knocking everybody out,” Brunson said. “Is that exactly how every fight is gonna go? No. With that Dan Kelly fight, I saw myself knocking him out, but I also saw the possibility of a tough, grueling fight where he was trying to impose his will, as he did with everybody else. So I was definitely expecting a tough fight, but whenever you can get those quick knockouts, it’s definitely relaxing.”
And it made the long flight back to North Carolina that much better.
This Saturday, Brunson returns to the Octagon for a main event assignment against Lyoto Machida in Sao Paulo. The Wilmington native is no stranger to being on the road, and that even goes for his fight prep, which takes him to Atlanta once a week to work on his Muay Thai game. It can be an exhausting price to pay, but the 33-year-old is making it work.
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“My daughters are getting older, so I’m getting great, quality family time in North Carolina and I also go down to Atlanta to Madhouse Muay Thai once a week,” said Brunson, who used to spend his camps in Albuquerque with the Jackson-Wink MMA squad. “So I go down on a Tuesday morning and I’ll come back on Wednesday at noon. I stay a day and a half there and work on my Muay Thai, so I’m not missing much. I’m missing the individual time with Greg (Jackson), but I’ve been fighting for a long time now and I understand the game and I understand what I need to work on, and I’m just trying to up my skills that I’ve been lacking when it comes to the standup.”
If Brunson – who has ended his last five wins by knockout – is adding skills to his standup attack, that’s a scary proposition for his opponents at 185 pounds, but more importantly, his main focus these days are on the intangibles that can’t be drilled or taught.
