THE CANADIAN PRESS
(Razor) Rob McCullough grew up young. That’ll happen when your family fractures and you decide to focus on becoming a fighter.
At 14, the Southern California native was on his own, crashing on one couch after another. He saw it as an adventure, even through there were tough times.
"I remember on my 15th birthday I was a little bummed out because it was cold and I had nowhere to go and I was hanging out in front of a liquor store with these kids," he recalled in a recent interview.
Fifteen years later, McCullough is the World Extreme Cagefighting’s lightweight champion, a tattooed knockout artist with a record of 15-3. Twelve of those wins came in the first round.
On Wednesday night, McCullough defends his 155-pound championship against Jamie (The Worm) Varner at the Santa Ana Star Center in Albuquerque, N.M. It’s one of three WEC belts on the line — welterweight title-holder Carlos Condit takes on Carlo Prater while bantamweight champion Chase Beebe tackles Miguel Torres.
Also on the WEC 32 card, Mark (The Machine) Hominick of Thamesford, Ont., faces bantamweight Josh Grispi.
McCullough is making his second title defence since defeating Kit Cope in two minutes 53 seconds to claim the vacant crown in January 2007. He needed just 89 seconds to dispose of Richard Crunkilton last September and enters the Varner bout on a nine-fight win streak.
Just 23, Varner is a UFC veteran with a record of 13-2 with two no-contests. A confident sort, he comes into the fight with nine submissions under his belt. "A cool kid," according to McCullough.
.McCullough, whose father was a Vietnam vet, says he has been in training as long as he can remember.
"I remember as a young kid thinking that when you grew up, you had to go to war because my dad did. I kind of thought that’s what you’ve got to do," he said. "I remember at a young age always training. I had a little combat obstacle course in my backyard, combat lines and tires I ran in and pull-up bars. I was training as a young child."
Born and raised in Huntington Beach, he was 11 when his family split. He moved to Alaska to live with his sister but returned to California after about a year and started getting into trouble. He returned to Alaska and then got in trouble there.
"I had no direction, I had no father to really set me straight. I kind of ran amok. Then I realized, `Hey I’m going to do this on my own.’ I came back to Huntington Beach where I wanted to live, on my own, house to house with friends."
He was 14 and had already decided he wanted to fight for a living.
A fan of Chuck Norris, he joined a nearby karate school at 11, taking on a Orange County Register paper route to pay for it. He loved sparring from the get-go and recalls one of his instructors yelling at him for calling out a partner who wasn’t aggressive enough for McCullough’s liking.
"I kind of knew that I had something in me. I had that streak in me. That competition. I didn’t mind getting hit in the face, as long as I won."
School soon took a back seat to sports for the transient McCullough, who was surfing in the third grade and then, at the suggestion of his mother, took up football. He says he was 10 when he realized where his talents lay.
"I wasn’t a real big kid. But I remember my (football) coach came over one time after practice and said `If all the kids on the team had a heart like Rob here we have a championship team.’ And that really set in. Like wow, I know I’m going to go somewhere with this."
During high school, McCullough got to know future UFC champion Tito Ortiz through a friend, and the two have remained close since. McCullough says the Huntington Beach Bad Boy is nicer than many people give him credit for.
"He’s got a good heart. Once you get to know him, you figure that out by just talking to him. Sometimes yeah, I think people give him a bad rap. That’s just being in the public eye, people either like you or they don’t. Either way they’re still talking about you."
While Ortiz went into MMA, McCullough turned to kickboxing. He recalls busing tables in downtown Huntington Beach when Tank Abbott, Kimo and a few other UFC fighters came in.
"And I thought that would be so cool to do that, but I was like they don’t have any guys my size, because these guys were monsters, they were huge, 200 (pounds) and change. And I’m like I’m not ever going to be a huge 200-pound guy unless I eat cheeseburgers the rest of my life."
Mixed martial arts did open its door to smaller fighters, though, and the five-foot-eight McCullough has made short work of almost all of his opposition. He says his quick finishing stems from his tough training.
"I train like I fight and it comes out. I really enjoy this. This is fun for me. I can’t believe I actually get a paycheque for this. And you know at the end of it, I’m not going to jail. I don’t have to look around and go `Are the cops coming?’ I get to walk out of there… . To me this is the ultimate sport. I can’t believe it actually took off and it’s this popular because it’s a dream come true."
He also makes a point of ensuring his training is up to snuff, bringing in fresh fighters to challenge him. Most recently, he invited Josh Thompson, who beat him in 2002. Ortiz helped out by loaning him his home at Big Bear, Calif., which used to belong to boxer Oscar de la Hoya, for high-altitude training.
McCullough may be on top of the mountain these days but hasn’t forgotten his roots.
"I’ve got to definitely keep it real. I’ll look back and I’ll remember where I came from and that definitely fuels my fire when I think back on it," he explained.
McCullough has long since reconnected with his mother, moving back in with her at 18. She kept urging him to go to school and get a job.
"She laughed me at every day about training and fighting," he said. "And now she’s my No. 1 fan. You can’t stop her. She walks around with 8x10s, she’s giving them to everybody. It’s come full circle."
But he never re-established links with his father. "I just kind of looked at it that he gave up on something."
His legacy will be more than a championship belt. McCullough’s full name is Robert Alexander McCullough IV and he says there will be a fifth.
"Yeah, I practise all the time," he said with a chuckle.
