The UFC Needs More Brian Stann | UFC NEWS
By Josh Long:
There are a lot of people who say Jon Jones is the new face of the UFC, but there’s a guy who’s not a high profile fighter who deserves the title “face of the UFC.” That fighter is the former United States Marine “The All-American” Brian Stann.
During his most recent fight, Stann defeated Alessio Sakara. After dropping his opponent with knees, Stann found himself in his opponent’s guard. While in Sakara’s guard Stann knocked him out with short elbows, but instead of continuing to inflict more damage he pulled up and waited for the referee to stop the fight.
After the fight Stann’s decision to spare his opponent any further damage earned him high praise from his boss, UFC President Dana White on Twitter. White tweeted, “Brian Stann is one of the classiest people on earth!”
Something that also stood about Stann during his last fight is his training camp. According to Jamie McAllister of BJPenn.com, Stann decided to train at home in Atlanta to be with his wife after the death of her brother and at one point contemplated calling off the fight.
“This fight was different, there were a lot of things new in my camp, I had to surround myself at home and take care of my wife and with the loss in family it was a real tough time. I thought about calling the fight [off],” Stann said. “But I’m glad to overcome that adversity and come out here and perform well.” (Source: BJPenn.com)
How many fighters do this?
By now most everyone knows Stann’s story. A former Marine Captain who was awarded a Silver Star, the nation’s third highest award for valor in combat, after he and his platoon held off insurgents for six days. All 44 members of Stann’s platoon survived the attacks.
So why does the UFC need more Brian Stann? Well it can never hurt to have a guy like Stann representing the UFC.
In today’s society there are some who have less than a positive opinion of MMA fighters, after all when fighters are failing drug tests and getting arrested it’s hard to blame them. Brian Stann is a guy who can change this attitude. There hasn’t been one time during his MMA career that Stann has created any controversy outside the cage and it’s a safe assumption that this will never happen.
Stann knows all about honor and discipline after all he was a former middle linebacker at the United States Naval Academy, a place rich in honor and tradition.
Speaking of honor, Stann honored his fallen comrades by scoring a 2nd round TKO victory over Jorge Santaigo at UFC 130. Overcome with emotion of fighting on Memorial Day weekend, “The All-American,” dropped to his knees with chants of “USA, USA, USA!” ringing out from the crowd.
In a post-fight interview with Ariel Helwani for mmafighting.com, Stann explained some of the reasoning behind his emotional celebration.
“I fight in an athletic competition, you know and you’re always worried when you go into a fight aw man I don’t want to lose I don’t want to be embarrassed,” Stann said. “Today there were people that lost their legs, today there were people who lost their family members and so you know I always take that into perspective when I win, I think about guys that aren’t here anymore.”
In that same interview Stann mentioned the crowd was cheering for him like he was a hero, something he called a norm for a UFC fighter, but he doesn’t consider himself a hero and mentioned his heroes.
“My heroes in life aren’t actors they aren’t athletes, my heroes are the men and women that deploy overseas to protect this nation,” Stann said in the same interview.
People say that a parent hasn’t done their job if their kids are looking up to professional athletes, because a lot of times they’re in the news for the wrong reason. If there is an athlete that parents should have their kids look up to it’s a true hero whose name is Brian Stann.
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Brian Stann is easily my favorite middleweight.
Can’t wait Stann vs Lombard announced no date set yet
Stann is pretty awesome. He should continue to train out of GA because I’ve seen dramatic improvement in his striking.
Excellent article.
Who doesn’t love Brian stann??? He should be president!!!
Andy Ogle for Prez… Lol everything that guy says is hilarious.
relax people yes he has good character but its about the best fighters not the best character. i respect what he has done and he is a great fighters but i would not put him on the level that people want it to be simply because of his prior credential as a marine…btw i dont deny again that these acts were very respectful they were extremley awsome acts
Yea so id like to comment on stann. I served w him in the Corps so call me bias but here’s how I see it, and feel free to disagree but its my opinion. Stann came in as a lhvwt, and was a little small for that weight class but heart and determination and skill allowed him to still make it to ufc in that class, but he needed to drop to middleweight cuz he’s not even really big at that weight either. So now he’s in the right class, and he’s tearing people up. Still has same power, he was the betting underdog for every fight and worked his way up to title contender fight against the worst possible style match for his skill set, and he lost. He’s still relatively new to the sport and he is learning at am amazing pace. This weight class is somewhat weak anyway so say what you want of his competition, but he doesn’t pick his fights, he just knocks 90% of the people out he’s put in front of, all of which he was the underdog. So don’t fault him for who’s he’s faught, the ufc has padded so many fighters in the past to market them, I understand that, and with the USMC partnering/sponsoring the ufc, I could easily see them continueing to do this with stann, however, stann has the knockout power to put anyone out in the division, more heart and tenacity and grit and true warrior spirit to mentally break anyone who steps into a cage, and once he gets solid tdd and a bit of wrestling/grappling experience and confidence in those skills, he will be a force to be reckoned with. Thanks for reading. Semper fi
Are you serious Stann is fricken huge MW, easily drops 30 lbs to make weight every fight
I dont disagree i just am more for fighters skills then history, and im not saying he doesnt have good skills, im just saying that how i view it. Like personality and characteristics should come second you know?
Prob Stann will always have is he gets spanked by ALL wrestlers and he is too old to ever catch up with his wrestling. i’m surethe UFC will continue to give him good matchups which favor his skills which is fine with me.
J.I Joe style
Good point bout the age and wrestling. But Stann’s already earned the love of the crowd. He is the NEW CAPTAIN AMERICA.Really excited to see him and Hector Lombard.That ‘ll be a true battle of fierce warriors.Cant root for either one of ‘em cause I’m big fan of both.
I have to disagree about 185 being called weak.2 years ago ya.But that was before DANA asked Vitor,Stan,Munoz,to drop down in to 185.And now Hector Lombard came.Id say MW is pretty ****en talent stacked.Made 205 a little weaker in the process though
Stann has not been fighting in the UFC long enough be the “face of the ufc,” and he’s also not a champion, He’s a badass fighter and a great guy, but let his fights earn him that title.
Since Stann’s fight with lebon I called that he’s gnna be the guy to take out silva! he is the perfect matchup styalisticly for silva they both don’t wrestle and silva doesn’t have good enough wrestling to take down Stann. He has a good enough chin to get in there and bang with silva but the only thing he would need to avoid is Silvia’s speed. I’m calling this now Brian stann with dethrone the best fighter in the world(silva)
1 thing at a time there.Your looking pass Hector LOMBARD,as if Stanns gonna run through him.Mistake.You should wait to see how this fight goes before you start talking about Stann and Silva…
Jones is a disrespectful asshole for dropping an unconscious Machida the way he did.
As opposed to Jones’ actions vs. Machida, Stann showed his opponent the utmost respect and didn’t hurt him more than needed. I really liked that, he showed he has a true martial artists heart.