Charlie Brenneman is down, but he’s not out.
“The Spaniard” tweeted on Tuesday that he has been released from his UFC contract after going 4-4 inside the Octagon.
That’s the bad news. The good news is it doesn’t sound like he’s going to be sitting around, licking his wounds.
“It’s a natural phase in anything,” Brennemen said. “You lose a fight, a job, a girlfriend … but to be honest, as soon as I made that [Twitter] post, the immediate support that I received immediately changed my perspective.
“My ultimate goal now is to get back to the big show.”
Brennemen (15-5) said he briefly thought about calling it quits after being notified of his release, but that is no longer an option because, as he put it, “[MMA] is my passion, and I’m sticking around.”
His last fight — a 45-second TKO loss to Kyle Noke at UFC 152 — ended controversially when it appeared as though the fight was stopped prematurely.
“I thought I would maybe get another chance but I didn’t,” he said. “I lost to Noke, and I think I should beat him 10 out of 10 times, but I didn’t. I can’t point a finger and be mad, though. I can’t say [the UFC is] unjustified.”
Brenneman, who said he would like to fight again “as soon as possible,” is best remembered for agreeing to fight Rick Story on a day’s notice in in June 2011 after Nate Marquardt was not medically cleared to fight by the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission. Brenneman went on to beat the surging Story via unanimous decision in his home state of Pennsylvania.
“I’m not OK with being the guy who beat Rick Story in Pittsburgh,” he said. “I want that to be one of the things I did. That feeling, I don’t think I will ever feel that again. 99.9 percent of people won’t feel that.
“But I want to feel that again, and I will do my damndest to get that again.”