Making his professional debut in 2007, Antwain Britt has quickly become a force to be reckoned with in the mixed martial arts world. Dubbed “The Juggernaut,” Britt’s overwhelming mix of wrestling and striking has garnered him a professional record of 11-3 with nine TKO’s.
Signing with Strikeforce last year, Britt made a splash in first appearance in December, stopping Scott Lighty in dominating fashion. Next up, Britt faces an as-yet-unnamed opponent on April 17th in Nashville, Tennessee when Strikeforce makes their second appearance on CBS.
In the midst of preparing for his bout, the Virginia Beach-native spoke to BumpyKnuckle.com on how he landed the deal with Strikeforce, the transition from wrestling to MMA, and his emergence as a top contender in Strikeforce’s light heavyweight division.
BumpyKnuckle.com: Can you give us a little background on yourself, and how you got involved in MMA?
Antwain Britt: I came up in Virginia doing football and wrestling in high school. I wrestled a little bit in college but I didn’t do any formal martial arts. I had a friend who trained and I went and asked him about getting into MMA and he referred me to a guy named Buck Grant who is actually my coach now at Hybrid Academy in Virginia Beach, Virginia. I went in to take some kickboxing classes and caught on pretty quickly and got invited onto the fight team and had my first fight about three months later.
I went 5-0 as an amateur and then I turned pro. I then went 4-0 as a pro and got invited onto the eighth season of The Ultimate Fighter. I went on there as a front runner but in my first prelim fight I broke my hand about 45 seconds into the first round. After I got my hand checked out and they found out it was broken the Nevada State Athletic Commission wouldn’t let me continue so I came home from there. I took a couple months off and came back and went 4-0 again–since I came back I’ve went 7-2.
About 4-5 months ago I got approached by Pat Miletich about a deal with Strikeforce and of course I took that opportunity. I had my first fight with Strikeforce on December 19th on the “Evolution” card against Scotty Lighty. I beat him in the first round and that leads me to where we are today.
BumpyKnuckle.com: How did the deal with Strikeforce come about? You said Pat Miletich approached you about it?
Antwain: Actually I had a relationship with Pat for a couple years. I went out to the IFL tryouts a couple years ago. Pat and I kept in contact and then the Strikeforce deal came about and he gave me a call and let me know if I was interested he could get me a deal with them.
BumpyKnuckle.com: So you’re fighting full time now?
Antwain: Yeah I’m fighting full time and doing some personal training and private sessions.
BumpyKnuckle.com: At what point did you decide that it was time to turn pro?
Antwain: Well you start to run out of people to fight. I was 5-0 and they weren’t exactly hard fought battles. I kind of ran through guys and started to run out of guys to fight and said if I’m going to do it I mine as well get paid for it.
BumpyKnuckle.com: Take us through a typical day for you.
Antwain: I usually get up around nine or ten and do an early morning workout with some strength and conditioning circuit. If I have to teach I go do that around noon. If I don’t have that, I usually lay low and let my body recover until I go back and train at four or five. Those sessions are usually MMA sparring, Muay Thai kickboxing or grappling depending on the day. Then I go home and try to rest my body as much as I can.
BumpyKnuckle.com: You said you wrestled in high school. How has the transition from wrestling to MMA been for you?
Antwain: A lot of people tell you wrestling is a good base for MMA. It teaches muscle memory and just gets you used to the one-on-one competition. Wrestling really prepares you for that. Wrestling being a big part of MMA training definitely helps you a lot getting prepared for different styles. It gives you the ability to take guys down and also stay on the feet if you’re fighting a jiu-jitsu guy that is looking to get you down.
BumpyKnuckle.com: How are you feeling about being apart of Strikeforce? Has that changed a lot of things for you?
Antwain: Yeah, Strikeforce has been huge. Of course they’re one of the biggest organizations out there and being able to fight for them and showcase my skills for them has been great. I look forward to working a lot more with them and really making my name synonymous with theirs.
I just want to be as big as possible. My goal is to go after the title no matter who the champion is. People that know me know how I fight and know I go out there and go a hundred miles an hour with plenty of gas in the tank and really try to make it a lightshow when I go out there.
BumpyKnuckle.com: King Mo and Gegard Mousasi are big names in your division. Would you say those are the top guys right now?
Antwain: I definitely put myself as a top tier fighter in Strikeforce. Just because less people know about me than those guys doesn’t change the fact that I’m in the same league as those guys. I think with my striking I can compete with guys like Mousasi and Mo. My wrestling allows me to stay on my feet so I can be pretty liberal with my striking as I showed in my fight with Lighty. A lot of people were talking about Lighty possibly getting a title shot and for me to go in and really dismantle him the way I did says something about my skill level.
Strikeforce has done a really good job of filling the light heavyweight division so whoever they put in front of me I’m going after them like a machine. I’m going out there and really imposing my will and bringing home W’s.
BumpyKnuckle.com: So is the light heavyweight division going to be a home for you?
Antwain: Yeah, I feel pretty comfortable at 205. A lot of people say I’m on the smaller end of 205 but I came down from heavyweight and I move around pretty quickly and agile and I still hit like a heavyweight so I think it’s a great weight class for me.
BumpyKnuckle.com: Anything you’d like to add?
Antwain: I want everyone to know that I’m a huge fan of my fans. I really love interacting with my fans. I love doing seminars and teaching so if anyone out there wants to talk with me about possible seminars you can email me at antwainbritt@gmail.com. For seminars or appearances or stuff like that, please contact me.
Also, I want to thank my sponsors. Untamed Industries have been great to me and they really put their fighters first and they really promote their fighters. I look forward to doing a lot more work with them and you can check them out at www.untamedindustries.com.
Also, The Green Gi, another one of my sponsors. They make one hundred percent all natural gi’s made out of hemp. They’re doing great things for the environment. Also all my training partners over at Hybrid and my coach Buck. They really do what it takes to get me ready for these fights and I really appreciate that. You’re going to see more of the same from Antwain Britt in the future on Strikeforce.
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Britt is truly one of the up and comers in strikeforce. mo gets a lot of publicity b/c of his mouth, but he’s got like 6 fights under his belt.
he needs at least another win or two to challenge mousasi imo
Britt is official! This guy is gonna do great things in Strikeforce. Hes a killer