Bryan Battle didn’t travel to his most recent fight at UFC Paris with the intention of pissing off the entire country of France but that’s sort of how it worked out.
A blistering finish over French fighter Kevin Jousset led to a post-fight interview where Battle first flipped off the crowd and then invited the raucous audience to keep feeding him with their boos. The interview, his gesture towards the fans and even his choice in walkout songs led to a parody tweet going viral that claimed he was fined for his actions and banned from ever returning to France.
While Battle never planned on erupting the way he did that night, the reaction undoubtedly got him a lot of attention and he believes played at least some part in landing his upcoming fight against Randy Brown at UFC 310 on Saturday.
“I tell you what, it’s the simple things,” Battle told MMA Fighting. “Sometimes all you’ve got to do is start a riot and things work out the way you want them to.
“This is everything I’ve been asking for. It’s one of those things. You can’t complain about a full plate if you’re hungry. I’m excited about it. Excited to get this fight done. Go out and put on another stellar performance.”
As much as winning and losing should always matter most, Battle acknowledged that getting attention in the UFC sometimes goes far beyond what happens in the cage.
That’s another reason why Battle doesn’t want to lose any momentum coming off that win at UFC Paris so he expects to put on another memorable performance on Saturday before taking full advantage of whatever time he’s granted on the microphone afterwards.
“It’s one of those things where first and foremost, it is a sport but we are entertaining people,” Battle said. “What I’ve found is the fighters that stick out are the fighters who are able to capture imaginations. You can do that with your performances but you can also do that with your performance on the mic afterwards. If you can combine both of them, that’s when magic happens. Like Conor McGregor did.
“It’s a tough thing to do. I’m fortunate, I’ve gotten to be in some great situations. Like in France, I didn’t have any of that stuff planned to say. It just kind of happened and it caught the zeitgeist. It’s been real cool. We’re just going to keep building on it.”
While he had no problem playing the villain when he beat down a fighter in front of his home crowd, Battle doesn’t really see himself as the heel — a pro wrestling term used to describe the “bad guy” in a match.
Battle actually hopes to have more of the crowd on his side come Saturday but more than anything, he just wants to get a reaction because silence is never golden in his mind.
“I am anticipating being the face in this situation or the anti-hero, if you’re just talking from the pro wrestling perspective,” Battle said. “But I have a lot of love for Vegas. The bulk of my UFC fights have been in Vegas. I love the people out there. It’s like a second home to me. I’ve had a lot of fights in Vegas but I’ve never fought in front of a crowd this size. I’m looking forward to it.
“I’m just an energy guy, period. Whether that’s good energy, whether it’s negative energy, just give me energy. Give me something and I’ll take care of the rest.”
Unlike his previous fight where just fighting a French fighter in France gave him plenty to work with after a win, Battle doesn’t expect Brown to do much of anything to really fire him up in the same way.
Typically soft-spoken and respectful, Brown has an impressive resume while constantly teetering around the top 15 rankings but no one is going to label him as one of the best trash talkers in the sport.
That’s fine with Battle because he’s not going to try to drum up some fake rivalry between them but he’s also not going to bite his tongue when it comes time to get people excited for this fight.
“We’re going to fight each other, why not make it as big as possible?” Battle said. “What we’re going to do in the cage is what we’re going to do in the cage but the more people who care about it and the more eyeballs that are on it, it’s better for all parties involved.
“I’m not really going to do anything out of character. I’m really fortunate that just me being me, comes across as building up the fight.”
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