| There’s No Hiding David Baron’s UFC-worthy Credentials |
Shhhh…be very, very quiet. David Baron is coming to the UFC, and he doesn’t
want anyone, especially his opponent at UFC 89 this Saturday, Jim Miller, to know that he’s not your typical Octagon debutant.
“I’m gonna try to surprise him – that’s my aim,” said Baron through manager / translator Darragh Creamer. “I don’t think many UFC fans will know me as it is, and I’m going in there assuming that I’m unknown and I’m just gonna try and put on the best fight and try to surprise both my opponent and the crowd. Despite the fact that I’ve beaten guys like Sakurai and Dan Hardy, I’m going into this fight as if it was my very first fight and I don’t consider myself a star or anything because this is my first fight in the UFC.”
Dan Hardy, the highly touted Brit also making his UFC debut this weekend, against Akihiro Gono? Baron beat him twice, submitting him in 2005 and decisioning him in 2006.
Hayato “Mach” Sakurai, one of the top fighters in the world, the man who fought Matt Hughes for the UFC welterweight crown and then went on to beat the likes of Shinya Aoki, Joachim Hansen, Mac Danzig, and Jens Pulver? Baron submitted him in less than a round in May.
That’s not to mention his other 11 pro wins, his eight overall submissions, and only two losses (to Takanori Gomi and Per Eklund). So if fans think that Baron is some wet behind the ears rookie stepping into the Octagon this weekend, they’d be sadly mistaken. Baron can fight, and what makes his nine year pro MMA career even more impressive is that - like welterweight standout Chris Lytle - he has done it while working full-time as a fireman in his native France. It’s a fact that takes almost everyone aback.
“Promoters and organizers of my various fights have often been surprised when I tell them my job is actually as a fireman, and not a fighter,” said Baron, who nonetheless has made the sacrifices necessary to carry out both jobs at a high level. It’s not easy though.
“The biggest difficulty is having to have a second job,” he admits. “If you want to get to the top level of fighting and really be the best, you have to arrange all your time around your training schedule and your fighting.”
So far, the juggling act has worked for the 35-year old, who brings a five fight winning streak into the bout against New Jersey newcomer Miller. Baron says of his foe, “I’ve seen three of his fights. He’s very strong on the ground and that’s what I expect from him on fight night.” What may be most telling on fight night though won’t be something tangible,
like who has the better wrestling or striking, but the little things, like Baron’s greater world-class experience and being able to fight close to home while Miller has to get acclimated to the time change, the food, and everything else in the UK. Baron admits that fighting in Europe for his UFC debut helps, but he’s not going to rely too much on things like that come fight night.
“From that point of view, yes, I don’t have to travel too far and there is no big problem with the time zones,” said Baron. “But whether my opponent is European, Canadian, American, or whatever, the fact that he’s in the UFC means that he has a certain level and it’s not gonna be an easy fight.”
This humble attitude has served him well thus far in his career, and it matches his fighting philosophy, one that sees him approach each fight as a battle of wits as well as fists.
“I’ve always been drawn to combat sports, and within mixed martial arts, the type of combat I can use is so open that it attracted me to it,” said Baron. “But I don’t go into a fight like it’s a war – it’s more like a game of cat and mouse, where you have to think about every move that you make. It’s not important that people say that I’m the best in the world. I take great pleasure in enduring the fight, inflicting my strategy, and unraveling my opponent’s strategy in order to be able to impose my own.”
In the UFC’s stacked lightweight division, he’ll have plenty of chances to do that, and if he wins enough of these kinetic chess matches, he won’t be able to sneak up on anybody.
“I’m very happy to get an opportunity to fight in this (weight) category and in the UFC,” said Baron. “I’m glad that people think it’s the most difficult category; that way, when I have the belt, nobody can say that I don’t deserve it.”
| " | “Promoters and organizers of my various fights have often been surprised when I tell them my job is actually as a fireman, and not a fighter,” said Baron, who nonetheless has made the sacrifices necessary to carry out both jobs at a high level. It’s not easy though. |
