Meet the Fighter: Brian Collette

Brian Collette (21-2, 18 KO’s) is one of the hardest-working fighters in the sport of kickboxing. When most people are still fast asleep in their beds, he is leaving the house and on his way to the gym. He usually completes his first of two daily training sessions while most people are sitting down to breakfast.

And then he goes to work as an IT technician.

“On an average day I wake up 5:30, go to the gym, do padwork for about an hour and then go and start work. Then after work I come home and take a two-hour nap then hit the gym again for Muay Thai. Then I do my cardio, go home, eat, sleep, wake up and repeat,” he says.

“That’s the pattern every time I have a fight coming up, so it’s been like that for about two months now. I have a son and a girlfriend… it does take an impact on your personal life but they are really understanding.

“I put in the time. I am not here to play. We are professionals so we have to live life in a professional manner and train like professionals. There is no room for error in GLORY. Everyone at this level is really dangerous, everyone is here for a reason,” he says.

On Friday November 7, Collette will be one of four men taking part in the GLORY 18 Light-Heavyweight Contender Tournament, which airs live across the US on Spike TV from 9pm ET.

He faces Zack Mwekassa (11-1, 10 KO’s) in one semi-final match while the other pairs Danyo Ilunga (56-5, 44 KO’s) and Saulo Cavalari (28-2, 18 KO’s). The tournament winner comes out with a shot at the world title, which is exactly where Collette wants to be.

“I just want to win, I want to conquer. I want to be the alpha, that’s what it is all about. I am very competitive, I take a lot of things to heart. I’m passionate. Fighting is something I have been doing for a while and I take it so seriously,” he says.

“Just knowing that I have the ability and the opportunity to execute moves which I have trained repetitively, it’s almost like art to me, like drawing on a canvas.

“I love the sport, I love all the different styles, all the different fighters, all the different countries, the diversity. The whole thing drives me to work hard and succeed.”

Collette’s journey to this point has taken him through several different arts and styles. It has also seen him substitute one dream for another.

“I started off with boxing and Taekwondo and my overall goal originally was to go to the Olympics for the USA in one or both. But then a groin injury sat me out for nearly two years and it badly affected my flexibility,” he says.

“I started following Muay Thai as a ringsport, I was about sixteen years old, so I started training in that as well. I reached black belt in Taekwondo then dropped it and just carried on with Muay Thai and boxing.

“Nowadays I’d describe myself as a Thai boxer - Nak Muay, if you want to call it that - but I don’t really like to categorize my style. I see skillsets like tools: you can take something from everything. Every style has something, it’s not like you’re reliant on one style.”

“It’s that Jeet Kun Do philosophy of Bruce Lee’s - take what works and discard what doesn’t,” he adds, before going through some of his kickboxing influences.

“I am an admirer of Daniel Ghita and I also did some work with Gokhan Saki back in the day, before he transitioned into more of a Tyson-style puncher.  I love the kicking game. I used to love Andy Hug, Buakaw, Fuji Chalmsak…

“There are things I see in different fighters which I take away and put in my back pocket.”

Collette is one of several US fighters making a mark in GLORY and - along with the likes of Joe Schilling and Wayne Barrett - doing his bit to put an end to the myth that there are no high-level American fighters in the sport.

“I just think the talent wasn’t visible because we didn’t have the platform. I’ve trained in Holland and I don’t see much difference between us and the Dutch, they just do more of it and they spar harder than we tend to do in America,” he says.

“But kickboxing is bigger there as well, they have more opportunity for fights and amateur experience. I think that opportunities will increase in the US as this thing goes on and we will start to square the circle.

“We produce good fighters. The US produced some of the best boxers in history. The work ethic was strenuous: they put the time in, they put the training in. it wasn’t about your record or how many fights you had.

“These guys put six or eight miles of roadwork in every day plus plenty of sparring. Huge work ethic. That’s what you need to model yourself on as a fighter.”

Collette also believes that with GLORY giving kickboxing increased prominence in the US, there will be an influx of talent which would otherwise have been diverted to Mixed Martial Arts.

“I love the standup game and I think a lot of other fighters do too. I think you’re going to see guys coming into kickboxing in the future because they are more drawn to that than to Mixed Martial Arts. That in turn will produce more champions for the US,” he says.

Speaking of champions, if Collette emerges as the winner of the GLORY 18 tournament he is likely to be facing Gokhan Saki for the world title in his next outing. Saki is one of the sport’s biggest names but that doesn’t faze Collette - quite the contrary, in fact.

“Ever since I first started coming up in this sport I had dreams of fighting guys like Saki and all the greats. It’s coming to fruition now and it’s almost like déjà vu when I am around some of these guys. It’s like ‘I used to watch you as a teenager and now I am standing next to you,’” he says.

“It makes you realize that you are the same caliber guy, I’m equal to everyone else. You’re in this league for a reason: everyone is good, it just comes down to who wants it more and who is willing to push himself to the next level.

“I think at this level it comes down to mental state, that is a major part of the game. Confidence. Just knowing that you are going to hit somebody. Some guys already lost before they even throw their first strike.

“I don’t think, I turn my brain off and go into what me and coach have been doing. I don’t look at his face, I don’t look at his eyes or his expressions, I just execute what I have been trained for.”