By Dwight Wakabayashi
It will be no ordinary fight for Brian Stann when he takes on Wanderlei Silva in the main event of UFC on FUEL TV 8 from Japan this weekend.
Every fight and opponent brings different circumstances and a different challenge for a mixed martial artist but this weekend presents a special storm for the U.S. Marine and Georgia native. Stann was born at Yokota Air Base in Tokyo in September 1980 and moved to the United States before his earliest memory. He returns to his birthplace for the first time in his life for this fight, and it’s clear that it will be a special experience for him.
“Well, I don’t have any family here, but it has always been a place that I hold special because I was born here,” Stann told Sportsnet.ca in a phone interview from the Japane this week. “I don’t remember anything because I was too young but my mother and my sister lived here for many years and so growing up I would always hear these stories from there. My mom would tell me what it was like and for me it was so cool and unique and I always took an interest in martial arts as a young kid.
“So, that warrior culture, that martial culture that stems from the samurai and the honour, all of that intrigued me.”
His interest in the martial arts was also fueled by popular culture and the famous Karate Kid movie series of the late 1980s, especially the sequel.
“The Karate Kid movies were very popular growing up and with me being born in Japan and I know the movie was set in Okinawa but it was still really intriguing for me,” said Stann, who said he planned to visit the air base where he was born as well as some do some other sight-seeing.
Watch Saturday’s UFC on Sportsnet: Silva vs. Stann live at 10 p.m. ET on Sportsnet East, Ontario, West and Pacific. Also, catch five preliminary fights starting at 7 p.m. ET on Sportsnet.ca.
Fighting in Japan is indeed a special event, but according to Stann, the country isn’t the only thing that is special heading into this fight. He is set to take on one of the most dangerous and accomplished cage fighters this sport has ever seen in Brazilian Wanderlei Silva, whose most successful time in his career took place in the Pride organization in Japan from 1999 to 2006.
Silva has a rabid fan following in the country and despite the Japanese fans being some of the most subdued in the world, Stann will be in hostile territory when he enters the Octagon.
In typical Stann fashion, he is unfazed and honored for the opportunity.
“He is a guy whose career has been really special. He’s going to be in the UFC Hall of Fame and one of the greatest fighters of all time. You know, it’s more than just the way he fights, it’s how ferocious he can be in competition, but then how much of a gentleman he can be outside of it. There are some qualities in him that I admire and I truly appreciate as a fan so it is very special to me to just be a part of his career.”
Despite the obvious respect, Stann as much as anybody knows when it is time to put feelings aside and get the job done.
“Make no mistake about it, I’m not going to go into the Octagon nostalgic thinking to myself, ‘Oh my goodness you know.’ I can’t do that. If I were to do that it would be really bad for me. Wanderlei, regardless of age, is still a very dangerous fighter and a very skilled fighter, but I believe I am more skilled in pretty much every aspect of MMA and I plan on going in there and dominating the fight.”
Stann’s UFC record is a deceiving six wins and four losses, and he has already tangled with some of the very best in the business in his young career. He most recently lost a close decision to Michael Bisping at September’s UFC 152 in Toronto. The loss to Bisping was Stann’s second loss in two fights in Canada as he also lost to Krzysztof Soszynski in Montreal in 2009. Despite that, he would still love to fight north of the border again.
“I don’t feel like I have a huge fan base up there but that’s because I fought a Canadian and then in the other one I fought Bisping and he’s been around a long time. I don’t have any angst about fighting in Canada. I’ll probably fight there again in the next few years and I look forward to it.”
Stann is one of the most intriguing and interesting fighters to ever compete in the UFC. Although the longtime stigma of MMA fighters being brainless, bar fighting, hooligans is slowly but surely wearing off, Stann’s life accomplishments take it to an entirely different level altogether.
As well as being a middleweight contender, he is a decorated U.S. Marine, a father of two young daughters, a published author and the president and CEO of Hire Heroes USA, a non-profit organization that helps U.S. military veterans.
Dwight Wakabayashi is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report UFC and regular contributor to Sportsnet.ca’s UFC section. Follow him on Twitter @wakafightermma.