Brendan Schaub: 'I realized I will never be the heavyweight champ of the world'
The greats never just do it for the paychecks, they do it because they have goals they want to achieve. Brendan Schaub entered MMA with one dream in mind, years ago, and that was to become the UFC heavyweight champion one day.
Through TUF, as well as fights with the likes of Mikro "Cro Cop" Filipovic, Andrei Arlovski and Gabriel Gonzaga, Schaub was able to hang on to that dream as he continued to work toward it. Now that he's decided to move down to light heavyweight, "The Hybrid" revealed on the latest episode of his Fighter & The Kid podcast that losing to Travis Browne last December was the moment he realized he would never become heavyweight champion, and that's why he's changing weight classes.
"That was the first time, in my entire life, at 32 years old, I realized I will never be the heavyweight champ of the world," he said, soberly.
"That's the only reason I'm doing it."
Fighters need to have audacious confidence in order to do what they do, and Schaub is no different. Although his style of fighting and personality have scored him and his podcast legions of fans, there are always loud and negative detractors.
Schaub opened up about just how bad it feels to have your dreams crushed in one moment, and surmised that if the haters could feel what he or others feel in instances like that, they'd change their tune. Understanding common humanity changes everything.
"If you could bottle that feeling and be like, 'Oh, this is how Brendan felt after he lost to Travis Browne ... when he realized he would never be heavyweight champ of the UFC. It's his biggest dream.' If you could just plug that in to a human body, I promise you the entire world would never hate on you on social media. They would never make bad comments towards you. They would see you in the streets, they would hug you. If you could take that heartbreak ... "
Those thoughts might be useful to keep in mind this fight weekend, and every one, as we watch athletes who have trained hard to try to make their dreams come true. Every fight, someone's dreams get a little closer to being realized, and every fight, someone else's get crushed.
Surely, it's appropriate to root for your favorites. But there's humanity on both sides, and those who lose -- after pouring everything into the effort -- are not losers.
Check out the full "The Fighter & The Kid" podcast episode above, and at the outlets below:
