WSOF champ David Branch: Target on my back 'brings out the monster in me'

David Branch sports an incredible 9-0 mark under the WSOF banner, and he’s not only won a pair of titles for the promotion, he’s also defended both belts. And yet he’s only get hungrier as he earns more success.

“Having the target on my back, having those two belts, knowing that there’s guys out there from different countries and different parts of the world that are training, they’re doing something, they’re thinking about fighting me – they’re thinking, ‘How am I going to beat this guy? I need to beat that guy’ – that makes me want to train,” Branch told MMAjunkie Radio. “It just brings out the monster in me.

“I already have a demon in me, and knowing that there’s somebody else out there that wants to take those things away from me that I worked so hard to get and that has taken me so long to get and certain things that are making substantial lifestyle changes in my life, knowing that there’s people out there that want to take that from me gives me a different push than other fighters have.”

Branch first gained national prominence during a four-fight UFC run that garnered him mixed results. But the Renzo Gracie product has flourished since debuting at WSOF’s very first show and currently sits as the No. 9-ranked middleweight in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA middleweight rankings.

Branch (19-3), who also owns the WSOF light heavyweight title, puts his middleweight belt on the line at WSOF 34, when he faces Louis Taylor (13-3) at the Dec. 31 event from New York City’s The Theater at Madison Square Garden. The bout takes place on the NBCSN-broadcast prelims prior to the NBC-broadcast main card.

Branch is on quite the roll coming into the fight, and he credits a new mindset for fueling his success.

“When you’re the champion, you always see those fighters that say, ‘Don’t ever call me out,’ but that’s like an unrealistic thing because there’s always going to be people that are underneath you or coming up in the rankings that are going to need to fight you to be able to get the things that you have been able to get to facilitate for your lifestyle, and they’re going to want those things,” Branch said. “So you can’t get mad at these guys to a certain degree and say, ‘Don’t ever call me out,’ and be like that and take it on a personal level. I had to learn that. And once I learned that, then it stopped becoming personal.

“This is a business. This is the nature of the beast, and that’s how it’s always going to me. I can go out there and beat the heck out of the next guy and do it to the last guy or three guys from now and keep sending that message, ‘Don’t ever call me out,’ but somebody’s going to call me out. So that’s one thing I’ve accepted.”

Branch has also accepted that his accomplishment as a dual-division champ has been downplayed at times because it wasn’t gained in the UFC. But the 35-year-old New Yorker knows it’s still a special accomplishment and believes recognition will eventually come, even if it’s not as quickly as he might like.

He even compares his position to that of longtime boxing champion “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler, who went unbeaten for a decade.

“He was a champion for so long, but I think it was the consistency of keeping those belts and defending them time and time again that maybe after a seven- or six-year course, that’s when he really started to get the recognition,” Branch said. “I know that it made him bitter and stuff like that, but maybe it’s just what I need to get me that edge, to get me that chip on my shoulder.

“When I see other fighters that I know that I’m better than getting more recognition than myself, maybe that’s what keeps me inside that dungeon, keeping with that Clubber Lang mentality, and that’s exactly what I have. I’m a champion that holds two belts that still fights like he’s a hungry wolf and trains like he’s a hungry wolf at the bottom, and that’s what makes more unique and more dangerous than a lot of other fighters.”

For more on WSOF 34, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.

MMAjunkie Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT) live from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show, available on SiriusXM Ch. 93, is hosted by “Gorgeous” George Garcia and producer Brian “Goze” Garcia. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.