Anthony Birchak says he brings too much to the table for his LFA 72 late replacement
Following a quiet 2018 that saw him only fight once, former UFC bantamweight Anthony Birchak has once again had difficulties finding bouts as he’s been sidelined from MMA the whole of 2019.
With just one MMA bout in the last 20 months, Birchak has been forced to focus on other combat sports, and thankfully it’s helped him develop his game for the long run.
“The last fight I had was for Combate Americas here in Tucson (last October), and before that it was RIZIN (in 2017), so me trying to find matches has been super hard,” Birchak told MMAWeekly.com. “Even doing Jiu-Jitsu and doing superfights here on the local scene has been difficult for me. I’ve had to go as high as 170lbs against a couple of high-level black belts to find competition.
“I’ve just been passing the time doing Jiu-Jitsu, and with that being my focus I’ve been able to really polish my wrestling and grappling, and stitching the two together.”
When it comes to his development, Birchak feels that’s been able to move forward while embracing what made him dangerous in the past.
“Being able to look at what I’m doing now when I spar, it’s more kind of the version of me when I started MMA where I was a really good heavy wrestler, but now I’ve got black belt level Jiu-Jitsu attached to that,” said Birchak.
“The things I’ve been working on is taking them down and holding them down. If they get back up somehow then I’m putting them right back on the deck and keeping them smashed out.”
On July 26 in Phoenix, Arizona, Birchak (13-6) will finally have his first MMA bout of the year when he faces late replacement Raphael Montini de Lima (6-2) in the 135-pound co-main event of LFA 72.
This article first appeared at News – MMAWeekly.com
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