Tim Kennedy has carried a chip on his shoulder for quite some time.
The gritty veteran has been consistently mixing it up with the best middleweight fighters in the world for the past four years and has been largely successful while doing so. The Jackson/Winkeljohn-trained fighter’s pressure-heavy attack has overwhelmed a solid cast of respectable names in the middleweight ranks and solidified Kennedy’s place in the coveted Top-10 rankings across the greater spectrum at 185 pounds.
That said, for some reason or another Kennedy has yet to acquire the level of sweeping respect given to fighters who reach the position in which he now stands. And the answer as to why this is the case is anyone’s guess.
The straight-shooting Texan has found victory in seven of his nine showings since hitting the bigger stages in MMA, with his only two losses coming in title bouts under the Strikeforce banner. Both of those setbacks came against current UFC title contenders Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza and Luke Rockhold, and the decorated military veteran proved to be a sizable test for both champions when the cage door closed. Furthermore, following the loss to Rockhold in 2012, Kennedy rolled off four consecutive victories—three of which have come under the bright lights inside the UFC Octagon.
That caliber of success, especially on the sport’s biggest stage, is typically enough to build some serious momentum toward title contention, but Kennedy remains a step or two away from igniting the type of fire that makes those opportunities difficult to deny. While being underrated is a condition that will fade with time, Kennedy is eager to get the overall respect he’s been lacking and put the rest of such business to bed.
He wants to carve out his place in the middleweight divisional hierarchy, and he’s looking to get that particular job done by any means necessary.
Kennedy told Bleacher Report:
I am going after that title. People have put Jacare in the position where he’s the next in line right now, but after I win this fight against Romero, we will both be 4-0 in the UFC. To be honest, I think I’ve fought tougher guys than he has. The only fights I’ve lost in the past seven years have been title fights. Those were both definitely close five-round fights and I feel I actually won one of them and the other one was close. In the end, I really need to go out and put on a great performance against Romero and really make the argument that I deserve to be fighting for the title.
Heading into his most recent bout against Michael Bisping at The Ultimate Fighter: Nations finale back in April, the opportunity for the signature win he had been missing was there for the taking. The brash Brit draws eyes every time he steps out, and the war of words the two fighters engaged in definitely set the table for a breakout performance for the former Strikeforce title challenger. It was the high profile fight Kennedy had been looking for—and even though he worked over “The Count” en route to the unanimous decision victory—the 35-year-old scrapper failed to get the respect that usually accompanies defeating a fighter of Bisping‘s standing.
Nevertheless, Kennedy isn’t a man who is easily detoured. Throughout his journey in mixed martial arts, he’s grown accustomed to fighting uphill battles, and those suit him just fine. Would he love to receive mass recognition as one of the best middleweights in the world and land a shot at the 185-pound strap? Sure he would, but it’s a goal he’s determined to reach regardless of praise and acceptance. Kennedy isn’t going to wait for fight fans or the media to come around to him. They will simply have to catch up and, until that happens, he has no problem reminding the critics what they failed to recognize in real time.
Such was the case on the Sunday following his victory over Bisping. Kennedy took to his Twitter account and ran through each predication made from a major MMA media outlet to point out they made the wrong pick. While this move could certainly have been perceived as brash, Kennedy is on a quest for respect and treading quietly simply isn’t his style.
There are 15 guys who do ‘Pros Picks’ and 13 of them picked me to lose. Many of them said I was going to get eaten alive on the inside and I wasn’t going to be able to take Bisping down. I wasn’t going to be able to make my entrances to land my big combos. I was actually able to do all of those things and destroyed him for five rounds, so I’m not going to give those guys a free pass.
I sent messages reminding them they picked me to lose and that I was actually able to do everything I said I was going to do. They didn’t and they were wrong. I’m right. I understand it’s the media’s job to make people believe what they say, but in the end, they have to be held responsible for those words. And that is all I was doing. I was telling them not to underrate me anymore.
While his victory over The Ultimate Fighter season three winner didn’t register as profoundly as he had originally hoped, a win in his next showing certainly has the potential to do so. The surging contender will face the equally streaking Yoel Romero at UFC 178 this Saturday night, in a battle to determine who will remain in the heated race for future title contention in the middleweight division.
The Olympic silver medalist turned mixed martial artist has been a wrecking machine under the UFC banner and derailing the “Soldier of God” would make the caliber of impact Kennedy needs to propel his push to the top. It also doesn’t hurt that their tilt is coming on one of the most anticipated cards of the year, and Kennedy knows the settings are perfect for him to make a huge statement.
[Romero] is a dangerous dude. He hits hard and is hard to takedown. He has good wrestling even though he doesn’t use it as often as he should. It is going to be a great fight, and I’m anxious to see how he’s going to try play with me. I think if he tries to stand with me, I’m going to be able to pick him apart on the feet. His best chance is to try to take me down. He also has a lot of power in his hands, and I have to be leery and respectful of that, but I think I can beat him anywhere this fight can go.
In addition to his upcoming bout with Romero coming at a crucial juncture of his career, it will also provide Kennedy the opportunity to put his personal progression as a mixed martial artist on display. Where he once relied on his personal grit and forward pressure to get the job done, his most recent stretch of fights have shown marked improvements in his striking skills.
Kennedy is quick to credit the strides made in this department to his two striking coaches in Albuquerque in Mike Winkeljohn and Brandon Gibson. Working with both men—and the rhythm they’ve found—has Kennedy feeling he’ll have the advantage of Romero wherever the fight goes.
Brandon [Gibson] and [Mike] Winkeljohn are really the best in the world. When you have the opportunity and time to spend with them, there is no choice but to improve as a fighter.
Wink and Brandon kind of joke sometimes that when they have fighters who believe and trust them, it creates a special chemistry where it makes it feel like they are playing a video game. When we are doing the right thing and responding like we are supposed to, they are calling things out and we are executing them perfectly. When I got the knockout on [Rafael] Natal, both of my coaches were yelling the code word for that bob-and-weave looping hook, and it couldn’t have been more perfect. I executed it as soon as they said it and got the knockout. It was surreal.
Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.
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