It’s been a bit of a bumpy ride for heavyweight Chris “The Crowbar” Tuchscherer (18-3, 1NC) who only recorded one loss in 19 fights before fighting under the Ultimate Fighting Championship banner.
Since debuting with the UFC in August of 2009, Tuchscherer is just 1-2 and will look to hold onto his job when he meets Mark Hunt later this month at UFC 127: Penn vs. Fitch on Feb. 27 in Sydney, Australia. In those three fights “The Crowbar” debuted against Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 102 losing by TKO, he earned a majority decision over Tim Hague at UFC 109, and was beaten by Brendan Schaub at UFC 116 via TKO.
For the team Death Clutch and training partner to former champ Brock Lesnar, the Minnesota fighter noted in a recent interview with UFC.com that since he’d moved up into the big leagues, he felt pressure to perform, choosing to slug it out with opponents rather than relying on his proven wrestling background to win fights.
Now when he meets Hunt on Feb. 27th, he’ll look to push the tempo of the fight by getting in Hunt’s face and grind out a win.
“I said ‘what am I doing?’ I’m trying to fight a way that I shouldn’t be fighting. I shouldn’t be trying to be someone that I’m not. Us wrestlers try to work standup a lot, and you always want to put on a good fight, so I think I went away from my style as far as being a grinder. I’m a guy who’s in your face and who closes the distance right away, and in my last couple fights I went to ‘let’s go out there and see if I can be Mike Tyson and try to bang with this guy,’ and I was trying to do things that I probably shouldn’t be doing, especially against someone else who has that as their forte.”
“I’m gonna push, push, push,” he said. “I feel right now that I’m in the best shape that I’ve ever been in, my weight’s maintained, I’m walking around at about 265, and I feel good about where my cardio’s at. I’ve had time to reevaluate the way my fights have been in the UFC and I kinda went away from the old Tuchscherer. I’m gonna bring back the old Tuchscherer, and I’m bringing back to the table what got me here in the first place.”