“I think I’m a better fighter, but he’s super dangerous, and when there’s that danger factor, I think that brings out the best in you because you gotta be sharp,” he said. “I lost my last fight, but I didn’t really think that kid was that dangerous. I thought if I was gonna lose, it was gonna be the way that I lost. With Dalcha, this guy comes to put your head in the fourth row with everything he throws, and you just have to be hyper-aware.”
Fighting someone who tries to put your head in the fourth row would keep anyone hyper-aware, but if Brundage ever loses focus in the gym, he’s got his bride – a veteran of six UFC bouts – to keep him on track. And yeah, if he ever brags about being on a UFC pay-per-view card, she can say that she’s done it three times already.
“She’s one of my toughest critics and toughest coaches, but she’s, for sure, my biggest supporter,” Brundage said. “There is a little healthy rivalry there – she has her way of doing things and she likes to make sure that I know if I’m not doing them the way she would do them. But it’s cool because she also understands the jitters and the nerves and the pressure that you’re under, fighting at the highest level.”
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That pressure has nothing on the pressure that comes along with being a parent. And the Brundages have that part down, so the fighting should be easy. Well, maybe not easy, but at least manageable. And whenever Brundage needs a boost, he’s got Amanda…and Kingsley, to push him.
“It’s all perspective,” he said. “My wife, she wanted to come back and fight. She’s a very talented fighter, she fought in the UFC, and she basically told me, ‘Listen, you’re in the UFC now, you gotta do what you gotta do to be successful, and I know what that takes because I’ve been there. And it’s gonna be really hard for us both to do that while we’re dealing with Kingsley, so I’ll take a back step and I’ll take over the parent role a little bit more and you’re gonna take over the fighter role.’ So I feel like if I didn’t commit to that the way I know I should, it would be disrespectful to her and the sacrifice she’s making of her dreams. I feel like I’m carrying both our dreams a little bit, so that’s really good fuel to the fire for me.”
