David Branch currently holds two belts in the World Series Of Fighting, as the current WSOF Light Heavyweight Champion and the current WSOF Middleweight Champion. Branch will be defending the middleweight crown against Louis Taylor at the WSOF 34 this month. Despite not reaching the level of fame of UFC double champion Conor McGregor, Branch knows that he’s got a target on his back.
“Having the target on my back, having those two belts, knowing that there’s guys out there from different countries and different parts of the world that are training, they’re doing something, they’re thinking about fighting me – they’re thinking, ‘How am I going to beat this guy? I need to beat that guy’ – that makes me want to train,” Branch told MMA Junkie Radio. “It just brings out the monster in me. I already have a demon in me, and knowing that there’s somebody else out there that wants to take those things away from me that I worked so hard to get and that has taken me so long to get and certain things that are making substantial lifestyle changes in my life, knowing that there’s people out there that want to take that from me gives me a different push than other fighters have.”
Since Branch accomplished the rare goal of hold two titles simultaneously in the WSOF, he has changed his mindset heading into fights, which has helped him out a lot.
“When you’re the champion, you always see those fighters that say, ‘Don’t ever call me out,’ but that’s like an unrealistic thing because there’s always going to be people that are underneath you or coming up in the rankings that are going to need to fight you to be able to get the things that you have been able to get to facilitate for your lifestyle, and they’re going to want those things,” Branch said. “So you can’t get mad at these guys to a certain degree and say, ‘Don’t ever call me out,’ and be like that and take it on a personal level. I had to learn that. And once I learned that, then it stopped becoming personal. This is a business. This is the nature of the beast, and that’s how it’s always going to me. I can go out there and beat the heck out of the next guy and do it to the last guy or three guys from now and keep sending that message, ‘Don’t ever call me out,’ but somebody’s going to call me out. So that’s one thing I’ve accepted.”
World Series Of Fighting 34 takes place on Saturday, December 31 from The Theater At Madison Square Garden in New York, New York with Justin Gaethje and Luiz Firmino headlining.
