UFC middleweight Brad Tavares reflected on his 15 year UFC journey so far as he gets set to face Gerald Meerschaert at UFC Vegas 105 on Saturday night.
“It’s funny, right before I came here, I was talking to my wife about it. I’ve spent a huge portion of my life in the UFC. I got in when I was like 21,22, and now I’m 37,” Tavares told reporters on Wednesday.
“So been there for…it’s been a long time.”
Tavares (20-10) hadn’t seen a long UFC run when he was a kid growing up. He also couldn’t see himself not being in the UFC.
“No, not at all, I don’t know. I never really thought about it. It was always the goal to get to the UFC, but I never thought about the longevity of it or how long I would stay in there,” he said.
“But I also never really saw myself not being in the UFC. It’s been a long time. It’s hard to remember life prior.”
Tavares has also become a leader among his peers at Xtreme Couture where he’s just one of many UFC athletes and pro fighters. Among the names that train at the famous Las Vegas gym are Sean Strickland, Chris Curtis, Daniel Zellhuber to name a few.
“I kind of just naturally grew into that role I guess you could say. It’s so weird because, even though I say, you know, not picturing life before UFC, but it still does feel like just yesterday,” Tavares said about entering Xtreme Couture when he was younger.
“Just in awe of being there. We had looked up to this gym for so long, and then when I got there, all the fighters that were there and just being around them.”
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Watch the entire media day scrum with Brad Tavares above. He takes on Gerald Meerschaert at UFC Vegas 105 on Saturday night.
