If you look at the first five fights of Ramiz Brahimaj’s UFC career, it isn’t much to write home about. He had alternated wins and losses en route to a 2-3 record and was looking like he needed a change.
He found that change with a move up to Chicago. After keeping his camp close to home for years, he headed up North to Valle Flow Striking (VFS) Academy with Mike Valle. That’s a change that he feels had made all the difference.
“I would say, I don’t think I was around the environment that I needed to be around per se, right? So I know that making a change and getting outside of the realm of comfort and doing everything that I, in essence, you know, I yearned to do, but I kind of was, it was like a missing link,” Brahmiaj explained. “So just looking at it from that perspective and seeing where I’m at now, I definitely think that that was the element of change that was required to do what I do now.”
For Brahimaj, that change was pretty immediate. The very first camp he did with VFS, he saw the impact.
“When I took the initial step, it was against Mickey Gall, that whole training camp that I did it outside of, you know, my home base in Texas,” he said. “And it was tough, you know, it was such a big change, such a drastic change. But it definitely paid dividends. I don’t always look forward to coming up to Chicago and kind of traveling around for training at times, but just to see the way that it has enhanced my career and it’s given me such a broad spectrum on training.”
While the results in the cage have improved – Brahimaj has picked up three straight finishes with two bonuses as well – but that’s not all. The change from Texas to Chicago has led him to have a better outlook in both sport and life. Now he’s ready to show the world what the best version of Ramiz looks like.
“Honestly, it feels like it’s amplified my quality of training, of life, my outlook on fighting and everything like that. So it’s definitely been necessary,” Brahimaj said. “As far as that goes, I got no regrets, man. I kind of wish I would have did it a little bit younger because I feel like I have so much to show the fight world and to show fight fans that I still haven’t even showed yet.”
His next chance to show that off will come this Saturday back in Texas. He faces off with fellow surging welterweight, Punahele Soriano.
“Every time I fight, I always plan on dominating. That’s it. If it has to be bell to bell, if it has to be inside the distance, if it’s the first round, second round, third round, or if I got a clean sweep, all the judges score cards,” he said. “That’s the biggest change in my mind and I’ve made my mind up. No matter what the outcome is, the outcome is still going to be me getting my hand raised.”
You can catch his fight with Soriano as part of the prelims of UFC Houston. The fight card begins this Saturday at 5pm EST and airs on Paramount+.
