UFC welterweight Bryan Battle was once an amateur heavyweight, but had to change up his life after being viciously knocked out.
The hard-hitting star tipped the scales at 241lb for his debut in the sport on April 7, 2017. But now, just over seven years later, he is routinely making the 171lb limit for welterweight fights after making a massive change to his body.
Battle is set to face Kevin Jousset in Paris tomorrow night as he looks to continue an unbeaten run dating back to December of 2022. He is coming off a No Contest last time out against Ange Loosa after an accidental eye poke forced a stoppage.
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Bryan Battle was once 300lb after high school sporting career
During his career as an athlete in high school, Bryan Battle would play in a variety of sports while tipping the scales at around 240lb. However, once he graduated he struggled to keep the weight off and ballooned to almost 300lb.
Eventually, he found MMA and began to drop the pounds again, although he hadn’t initially planned to make such a drastic cut. “I hadn’t been doing any real physical activity since high school,” he told TMZ Sports back in September of 2021.
“So I was 21 at the time, pushing 300lb. I was like 240lb in high school, I never really watched my diet but I was just always kind of doing something and that kind of kept my weight down. But once I got out of high school and stopped doing things my weight kind of blew up.
“When I started training MMA I didn’t even plan on losing weight, it was just something I was passionate about. I started training a lot and losing weight just from the activity.
“And then for competitive purposes I just kept dropping weight classes because I felt like I could. After training for a while, I turned amateur and had ten amateur fights.”
Bryan Battle made MMA debut at heavyweight
In April of 2017, a 22-year-old Bryan Battle made his first walk to the cage. His amateur MMA debut came at LFA 8 in Greenville, South Carolina in a bout at heavyweight against fellow debutant Michel Andre from the local area.
Both men looked to be above their optimal weights, with the slightly shorter Andre outweighing Battle by 20lb. The stiffness on display was standard for two debuting fighters, but a few big leg kicks from the hometown fighter saw him find his range and end up in a clinch.
Eventually, less than two minutes into the bout with agility that exceeds his aesthetic, Andre managed to land a massive headkick. It was imemdiately lights out for Battle, and the bout was quickly waved off by the referee.
Since then, Battle went on to win eight on the bounce before turning over to the paid ranks in July of 2019. He even defeated eventual PFL champion Impa Kasanganay on his way to the pros, where he found his way to the UFC.
Bryan Battle is now a UFC welterweight contender
While Michel Andre would never fight again, Battle used the loss as motivation to continue and eventually made his way on to The Ultimate Fighter. He continued dropping through the divisions, and ended up winning the show’s 29th season at middleweight.
But after a tough second outing in the UFC, he opted to jump down to welterweight where he is now campaigning. He has missed that weight just once for a fight with Gabe Green whom he knocked out within 14 seconds.
“I didn’t really have to cut weight and it wasn’t something that I was trying to do,” he told the UFC website of his decision to cut further. “It was the first time I was training full-time and the weight just kinda fell off.
“Then after this fight [against Tresean Gore], because of the training, my weight never really yo-yoed back up. So I thought I might make 170 and I knew if I could get to 170 healthy, then that would be the optimal thing for my frame and my fighting style and what I want to do.
“There are a lot more dudes with clout at 170 that I’d love to fight than there are at 185 right now. So we did a test cut in March, it went well, and I let my manager know, and now we’re at 170. So I’m very excited.”
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