Mitch Ramirez, for his whole life, has dealt with people pointing out that his name is eeirly similar to a famous serial killer. Living in the Western part of the United States, as well as being born just a handful of years after the sentencing, made the jokes about Richard “The Night Stalker” Ramirez came flying early and often.
“In the past, when people would hear my last name they’d make that joke,” Ramirez recalled. “And I’d always be like ‘no, not like The Night Stalker’, because he was kind of a weirdo – let’s be honest. He wasn’t like a cool – I mean I don’t think any serial killers are cool – but he was definitely on the weirdo scale.”
However, as he progressed through the ranks of the MMA world, the jokes started coming from higher and higher up. Eventually, it was his new coach at Syndicate MMA, who make it something more than just a joke.
“Honestly, it was my coach. it was John Wood,” he said. “When I moved to Las Vegas about a year and a half ago and I started training, John would just say ‘oh Ramirez, like the Night Stalker.”
While the joke was largely just there based on the name, Ramirez admits that his fight style matches the nickname quite a bit – which is something Wood was sure to point out. Then the change was made to make it a little more personal to Mitch.
“It would always bug me a little bit. Why do we bring this guy up?” Ramirez admitted. “My coach would give me shit because of the way I would fight too. I bite down and I stalk my opponent. The way I fight – I am ‘The Fight Stalker’ per the words literally.”
Although it was a point of contention when he was young and early in his career, he finally relented on the nickname and has adopted it as his permanent fight name.
“At first I was like, I don’t know about that,” he said. “But eventually it just got to a point where I was like, ‘you know what? Let’s roll with it!”
“The Fight Stalker” will get his chance to get that name announced by Bruce Buffer if he can pass the test this week at Dana White’s Contender Series. He’ll appear on week 4 of the show opposite Timothy Caumba. The fight card will start at 8pm this Tuesday on ESPN+.
You can hear the entire audio of this interview at 26:12.
