Despite having been in the fight game for over 10 years, Timmy Gorman did his best to stay under the radar.
For fighters like him and his fellow training partners, it was the work in the gym that mattered, not what came out of their mouths.
That all changed when he made onto the cast of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) season 18, coached by Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate. He's since broken out of his shell, even called out Tate's boyfriend for a fight once TUF is finished airing.
The Iowa-native is hoping this upcoming season will lead to his big break in Ultimate Fighting Championship, even moving his training out to Alliance MMA after this past season was done filming.
Gorman spoke to MMAmania.com during an appearance on The Verbal Submission talking about staying under the radar, fearing a lawsuit from TUF producers and the how men and women got along under one roof in this exclusive interview.
Check it out:
Brian Hemminger (MMAmania.com): You've been pretty popular with the local news lately, having a big feature done about you by the Des Moines paper, even getting interviewed on the TV stations down there. How's that been?
Timmy Gorman: It's been pretty exciting, just getting a bit of exposure. I've been doing this sport for probably 12 years and never really been about the exposure or getting my name out there. I was all about, it was almost a common rule among the fighters at my gym where we only cared about grinding away, training hard and becoming the best fighters we could be. It wasn't about the showboating or marketing. It was just about the fight game. Now that I'm finally on the show and everything, I'm to a level where I feel like marketing yourself and publicity is just good for my career in general so it's a step in a good direction.
Brian Hemminger (MMAmania.com): Do you think your decision to avoid marketing yourself was one of the big reasons it took you so long to get noticed and get this big break?
Timmy Gorman: Yeah, that's possible, but to be honest with you, the biggest reason I hadn't made it to the next level of the UFC is the importance of people's records. If you have too many losses on your record, it's not like a football season or basketball season where you hypothetically lose every game or match one season, you can still come back the next year, win every game and win the championship. With MMA, that loss stays there forever. That's the biggest flaw in the fight game right now. There's so many great fighters that deserve to be in the UFC like Bryan Green, Victor Moreno, but because back in the day they were all about fighting whoever just to prove themselves, not giving a shit out tough somebody was, they don't make it to the big show because they took losses earlier in their careers. It haunts them. I think they need to reevaluate how they figure out who makes it to the next level. There are guys who get there who have good records who aren't as good.
Going back to your original question, I knew your record had a big part in making it to the UFC and I didn't want to take that fluke loss, so I had it planned out to train, get as good as I possibly could before I started taking more fights. That way, when I did make it to the UFC, I'm not just one of those "one and done" type of fighters. I'd be peaking and just keep winning fights. I wanted to make it last when I'm there, not blow it and never get a shot again.
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