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Travis Galbraith: 2010 will
be the year of "The Gladiator"
MFC Staff
 On
February 26 Travis "The Gladiator" Galbraith will be aiming to put
an
exclamation mark on his performance against the heavy hitting Tom
"Kong"
Watson in Edmonton, Alberta, as the twenty-seven year old
middleweight
submission specialist promises that his upcoming "MFC 24: HeatXC"
bout will
mark a new beginning for the fighter who has already proven himself
against
many of the best athletes the game has to offer.
In a sport that is currently seeing an invasion of top level
athletes making
the transition with tremendous success, Galbraith admits to being
cut from a
distinctly different cloth in regards to how he came about
strangling grown
men for a living. When asked what type of previous combat sport
related
experience he had before making the decision to fight for a living -
wrestling, kickboxing, jiu-jitsu, karate, Tae-Bo, anything - the
self
described "lost boy" wore his disadvantaged upbringing as a badge,
stating,
"Nothing (laughs). I came from a straight nothing background. It was
all
street fights. That's where it all started for me.
"I was in and out of trouble my whole life. I was brought up in the
system.
Youth detention centers were my thing. All the way until I was
eighteen. It
was just a lack of parents. They just did their own thing. For
someone that
had nothing to begin with, fighting seemed like the thing to do. I
just knew
I needed to apply myself to it. I was lucky that I didn't have to
pay for my
training in the beginning. All I had was myself."
Refusing to allow his troubled childhood stand in the way of his
dreams to
make something out of himself, Travis threw himself headfirst into
the
beautifully brutal world of mixed martial arts and quickly
discovered he had
a penchant for forcing grown men to cry uncle, finishing eight of
his first
twelve victories via submission, and at one point choking the life
from a
trio of consecutive victims to establish himself as one of the most
dangerous ground fighters in the business.
After suffering a defeat at the hands of the Black House trained
Rafael
"Feijao" Cavalcante in 2008, Travis went on to string together a
pair of
impressive victories and looked to have all of the momentum in the
world on
his side, and that's when the bottom dropped out.
"In my last fight with David Heath I detached a tendon on my left
thumb,"
revealed Galbraith. "I couldn't tell you when it happened. I noticed
as soon
as the first round was over. I was like, 'F***, I can't open my hand
up'.
After that happened all of my takedowns and everything else I had
been
planning went right out the window and I decided to stand and bang
with
him."
While a torn tendon in the thumb is undoubtedly a set back for any
man that
chooses to fight as a profession, it shouldn't have been any more
than a six
month layoff at the very most. But as the saying goes, "Bad things
come in
pairs".
"I started back training about four months ago following that injury
and my
first week back I ended up breaking my right thumb on the top of my
sparring
partner's head," said Galbraith. "It was just one of those things.
It was
just brutal. I couldn't believe it had happened again, and to the
other hand
to make it even worse. I had pins in it and I started training with
my
conditioning coach only, and this is still with a cast on. I was
actually
able to begin light sparring and hitting the bag about a month and a
half
ago."
Many could have viewed the unlikely case of reoccurring injuries as
a sign
to hang them up. To get out of the game. However, with Travis being
the
"Gladiator" he is, there was no other way to take the break than a
breath of
fresh air. Something that needed to happen.
"This time off has really served to put my priorities right in
line,"
admitted Travis. "I don't know what it is, but it's like a cosmic
alignment
and everything just seems to be coming together now."
According to Galbraith, this recent cosmic aligning is all going to
culminate on February 26 as the Edmonton raised fighter promises to
make an
example out of "Kong" Watson on his way to establishing himself as
one of
MFC's premier middleweights.
"I know Tom is to bring a lot of stand up, but it's nothing I
haven't seen
up until now," said Galbraith. "He won't be able to out-Jits me, and
he's
not going to be able to out-wrestle me."
Just because Travis is known as a submission artist and Watson is
viewed as
a banger, don't expect for Galbraith to shy away from the stand up
for one
moment.
"I'm completely confident that I can hang with Tom on the feet if
that's
where the fight ends up," said the PRIDE FC veteran. "I feel very
confident
about my stand up. If he wants to keep it on the feet, it doesn't
matter.
Wherever the fight goes I'm going to take it to him.
"I don't feel like I have any major holes in my game anymore, but
before I
was never a really big stand up guy, and since I've been able to
train full
time I've done more stand up training than anything else. I've
turned my
weakness into my strength."
While Galbraith promises a reborn and revitalized fighter in 2010
beginning
at "MFC 24: HeatXC", the constantly developing twenty-three fight
veteran is
just fine with taking his time, and doing things the right way this
time
around.
"Honestly, I'm in no rush for anything right now," said Galbraith.
"I'll
take any fight that comes along. I've held belts for other
organizations in
the past and you take on a lot of responsibility when you capture
that belt.
Having that strap puts a huge target right on your back. If a title
fight
comes up down the line, then so be it, but I have no immediate plans
for
that. I'm not looking past Tom Watson. I'm just getting my feet wet
again
right now, but if the belt comes up sometime soon, then for sure
I'll go
after it.
"I'm still learning. There's still so much to learn in this game.
I'm just
hoping to continue to grow and develop. I'm still a work in
progress. I
don't think I'll ever stop being a work in progress.
"2010 is going to a breakthrough year for me is because I'm able to
actually
train full time now. Before I was always working a full time job and
trying
to work full time training into it. Luckily I got some sponsorships
that are
going to help me with that so I can apply the attention to the areas
that I
need work on as a full time job. It's really been helping me to fill
in the
holes I had in my game. That's why this is going to be the year."
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