Copyright MMA Fighting
Bryan Battle hasn’t lost a fight in almost three years, but he’s still fighting an uphill battle when it comes to his reputation in the combat sports community. The former Ultimate Fighter winner was cruising towards a top 10 ranking in the welterweight division, especially after his post-fight interview at a UFC Paris event went viral following a Performance of the Night knockout over local favorite Kevin Jousset. But then Battle missed weight prior to a split decision win over Randy Brown before booking his next fight at middleweight. Battle missed weight again causing his fight against Nursulton Ruziboev to be cancelled, and a few days later, he was released from his UFC contract. He wasted no time signing with Dirty Boxing where he scored an emphatic knockout victory with his second fight for the promotion set for Thursday while also inking a deal to join the PFL roster but Battle knows he still has something to prove after his unceremonious exit from the UFC. “It’s funny,” Battle told MMA Fighting. “I’m still the only motherf*cker who’s got to make a comeback without f*cking losing a fight! It’s cool. I’m still the best in the world so I’m just going to keep on doing my thing.” Reflecting back on a tumultuous start to 2025, Battle admits it’s tough to wrap his head around everything that has happened. He absolutely intended on working his way into title contention in the UFC sooner than later but now the 31-year-old veteran has to set new goals for himself. “It’s been wild,” Battle said. “There’s been things that happened out of my control, a lot of things that happened inside of my control. It’s been a very humbling experience. Now if anything I learned, there’s nothing you can take for granted. Absolutely nothing you can take for granted. “It’s been such a f*cking up and down and all over the place but it’s been fun. Obviously, I would still like to be in the UFC but they’re going to write a book about this shit. It’s going to be a movie one day. It’s been crazy as hell but it’s been fun, too.” When it comes to his weight cutting issues, Battle failed on the scale prior to his fight cancellation and eventual UFC release but less than two weeks later, he made the middleweight limit before scoring his knockout in Dirty Boxing. Looking back now, Battle knows what went wrong in the UFC and what he had to do to make weight but he can’t dwell too far in the past as he now prepares for his future. “The thing is I just took for granted how easy it would be to make middleweight,” Battle explained. “When I cut for Dirty Boxing, that was harder than it was for the UFC. I was running so much. As soon as I got the fight, it was just running, running, running. Doing rounds, running afterwards and it was a grind. It’s so dumb but literally looking back on it, it’s just a couple minor adjustments and I would have f*cking made weight for the UFC fights. “It kind of sucks but lesson learned. At this point, I can’t change what happened in the past. All I can do is learn from it and not make the same mistake ever again.” Of course, Battle knows he has no one to blame but himself for how his UFC run ended so he refuses to get mired in self-pity. Instead, he’s just thinking about his next fight in Dirty Boxing before eventually turning his attention to the PFL where he plans to stake his claim in the near future. “There’s a little bit of frustration for sure but only so much,” Battle said. “It’s unproductive. I’m ready to move on. I learned my lesson and ready to move onto bigger and better things.” While he’s now competing at 185 pounds, Battle says he doesn’t believe his days are done at welterweight but that might be the biggest test for him moving forward. Right now there’s not a whole lot of faith in Battle when it comes to his weight cuts and he takes ownership of that perception but he’s not giving up the fight. “I’m going to go out there and show I can be professional, do what I’m supposed to do,” Battle said. “Be a good boy and take things one fight at a time. I don’t know if they’ll ever let me go back to welterweight again but if I had my choice, yeah, I still got unfinished business there. People think I’m crazy for saying shit like that but I don’t care. People have been calling me crazy for a long, long, long time. I’ll handle one thing at a time. “While I’m staying active and busy, 185 is definitely the move. I can make the cut easier and it’s not so taxing on my body but eventually when I get back to the UFC, I would like to go back to welterweight and finish some things.”
