Tamdan McCrory: "I'm Fighting to Fight"

This article was originally posted on MMAMadness.

UFC Welterweight prospect Tamdan McCrory doesn’t fit the stereotypical image of a fighter.

He’s a tall, somewhat scrawny guy who fits the description of a Star Trek nerd. When non-MMA fans see him on the street, they would never guess that he makes a living fighting in a cage.

“Nobody really believes [that I am a fighter], I don’t really go around telling people what I do unless they come up and ask me about it,” McCrory told MMAMadness.com. “I’m pretty much a private person as is, so I don’t go around being super boisterous and being like ‘oh I’m a fighter and I’m badass’ and all that stuff.”

While McCrory’s appearance may not indicate it, fans that watch McCrory fight quickly realize he is not to be messed with.

“Most people are like, ‘I didn’t believe you at first, but man I saw you fight and you’re crazy.’ The thing is, where I live, most people really don’t know about the sport. It’s not even legal in New York state yet, so unless you’re around people that know what the UFC and MMA is, then they don’t really know what you’re talking about. A lot of people are like, ‘oh yeah, well I have a real job’ so I’m just like, ‘ok cool, [expletive].’”

McCrory has been fighting professionally since 2006 and has assembled a stellar 11-2 record. He got into the sport after watching the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter on Spike TV.

“I got into the sport from watching it here and there, but I never really got into it until I saw the first ‘Ultimate Fighter’. I saw guys like Forrest [Griffin], and I looked at it and was like ‘that’s something I could see myself doing.’”

Watching TUF wasn’t the only thing that drew McCrory into the sport. A lot of his motivation came from the built up anger he had from getting pushed around by high school and college bullies.

"I wasn’t born with talent, and I was never great at any sport that I played. I never amounted to anything in the eyes of my coaches while I was growing up. So, when I saw Forrest and all those guys on TUF, I thought to myself 'I can do that.'

"I also had a lot of stuff going on because I never really had any respect in high school and in college. I got pushed around by the juiced-up frat heads and stuff. People were always messing with me and laughing at me so that’s kind of how I got into fighting because I was like 'I can do that and I would just love to beat the living [expletive] out of people for money for the rest of my life.'"

After training with the right people, McCrory started to calm down and develop into a well rounded MMA fighter.

"Luckily, I had the right coaches that put a lot of time and energy into me. They really helped me calm myself and redirect the negative energy in my life. I just built up all the anger and frustration that I had towards the world and people and put it towards my fighting. There is still some rage and anger in me, but it’s not like problematic, and I’m not flying off the handle like I once was when I was younger. I’m also not being self-destructive about it either. My confidence has gotten better, and I’ve done a lot of growing into becoming a fighter."

McCrory was nicknamed the “Barn Cat” early on in his career due to his ferociousness. It was a name that was given to him after he won his first professional fight.

“After my first fight, I went out there and clobbered my opponent and they were like, ‘you’re really ferocious, so you’re the Barn Cat from now on.’ Ever since my second fight on I have been known as the Barn Cat.”

It may seem like an odd nickname to some, but McCrory explains just how ferocious the animal really is.

“It was always like this joke that barn cats are pound-for-pound the most ferocious animals alive. We live in a fairly rural town/county and there’s always barn cats running around like out in the fields and farms. People out here know what a barn cat is but it’s kind of hard to explain it to people who live in L.A and Las Vegas. They don’t know what a barn cat is, and they think I’m a joke or an idiot for that nickname.”

McCrory has only been defeated twice in his career, both losses coming by way of arm bar submission to Akihiro Gono and Dustin Hazelett. McCrory has learned from those two losses and is refocused on climbing up the welterweight division.

“At the time that I fought Gono I was still in school, and I had kind of risen up the ranks [in MMA] real quick without having the experience to match it. I had only been fighting for a little over a year when I fought him, and for a guy [like Gono], who’s been fighting for such a long time, it’s kind of hard to overcome that situation.”

Early on in his UFC career, McCrory was still in school and his mind wasn’t fully focused on fighting. He was studying hard while also getting ready for his upcoming fights. He eventually graduated with a science degree in Kinesiology at Cortland State in 2008.

“I was literally doing homework right when I was cutting weight so I took that time off and tried to get back to my old self. I had to shake off ring rust and all that good stuff, so in my fights with Cummo and Hazelett, I kind of felt it. After that, it was kind of a turning point from that point to like the beginning of this year. I feel like I am back to the way I was before and am right where I need to be to continue to climb the ladder and take my shots at the bigger name guys.”

McCrory is coming off a victory over Ryan Madigan at UFC 91 and is looking to string together back-to-back victories as he takes on John Howard at UFC 101. McCrory feels he matches up well with Howard and is confident that he will be able to defeat him. 

“He’s kind of like me—a jack of all trades. I don’t think he has anything that he’s exceptionally great at, but he also doesn’t seem to have any weakness that I could exploit either. I think we will match up fairly well, but at the same time, I definitely have the size advantage, and I think I have a slight skill advantage in a lot of areas.”

A victory over Howard would likely put McCrory in line for fights with bigger name opponents in the near future. McCrory would like to test himself against top 10 opponents, but he isn’t picky and would fight anyone the UFC offered him to fight.

“I’m fighting to fight, man. It isn’t like I called them up and said 'I want to fight Howard,' they just proposed the fight and I was like ‘Okay cool.’ That’s kind of the way it’s been for everything.

"When they offered me to fight Hazelett, they were like ‘You could either fight Hazelett in November, or you could wait to see if you get matched up later on.’ It could have been a little bit of a gamble but with him being a black belt and having more experience in the UFC I wanted to take that challenge. I did my best with it, and the result is the result. Whatever comes next is whatever the UFC gives me, and we’ll take a look at it and go from there.”

Some fighters dream about being matched up with a particular opponent that they look up to and respect, but McCrory isn’t one of those guys.

“That’s what I don’t get, like I hear all these fighters saying ‘Oh man, he’s a hero of mine and I have so much respect for him, and I can’t wait to fight him’. Why would you want to fight a guy that you respect? Either you want to get your ass beat by someone you look up to as a fighter, or you want to take some of that respect away by beating him and showing that you’re the top dog.

“I never understood that it’s like the whole ‘I want to thank God for giving me the ability to beat the living [expletive] out of another human being for money.’ To me, that’s like a whole philosophical dilemma, it’s kind of like you’re criss-crossing two different things that kind of shouldn’t be in the same light.”

When asked about his sponsors for his upcoming bout with Howard, McCrory had this to say:

“I would like to thank Erik Charles’ sponsor Power Bar because when he gets Power Bars I get to eat them and they’re delicious. You have to put that in the article so that we can send it over to Power Bar and get them to send him more Power Bars for me to eat.”

At the young age of 22, McCrory has a bright future ahead of him. He’s going to take everything one step at a time and is fully focused on becoming one of the world's best welterweight fighters.

“I am fighting to fight, and I’m training to be the best that I can be. Eventually I’d like to take a shot at the title, I mean I am 22, so I don’t see it happening in the next year or anything. But I can guarantee that I’m going to work my way to the top, and once I get there I’ll work on staying at the top for as long as I can.”

Mitch Ciccarelli is a staff writer for MMAMadness.com. He can be reached with comments and questions at [e-mail].