Brennan Ward: On His Own Terms

Brennan Ward can describe himself in four words: “I’m a f---ing brawler.”

The colorful and unapologetic Bellator MMA veteran will hunt an upset under the Professional Fighters League banner when he locks horns with the unbeaten Magomed Umalatov in a PFL 6 welterweight feature this Friday at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Ward needs a quick finish to keep his slim playoff hopes alive at 170 pounds.

“I come to brawl,” he said. “For me, it’s just a matter of being confident in my camp. I’ve been training hard, and I’m going to come out and give it to him. If I’ve got to fight three rounds, I’ve got to fight three rounds. I don’t see this dude outpointing me for three rounds. I can wrestle, I can f---ing strike, I can bang and I’ve got knockout power, so we’ll see what happens.”

Ward, who has only gone the distance once in his 25-fight career, enters the cage scoreless in the 2024 PFL welterweight standings. He made his ill-fated promotional debut on April 19, when Don Madge needed just 62 seconds to put him away with a rear-naked choke at PFL 3. It left Ward to face an uphill climb to the postseason.

“I think that dude beats me one time out of 100, and that was his one time,” he said. “I got in shape for that fight, but I wasn’t really training. I was on a job site f---ing four weeks before that fight, so it was kind of quick. I’m not blaming that, but I made some mistakes out there I don’t usually make. I underestimated him a little bit.”

Ward continues to operate out of Whaling City Boxing in his native Connecticut and the Rivera Athletic Center in Massachusetts. However, he also spent time training with former Bellator champion A.J. McKee and Antonio McKee at Team Bodyshop in Lakewood, California.

“I just get in good shape and I get ready to go, with the exception of that last fight,” Ward said. “That was not my best performance. It wasn’t my best preparation. I’ll be ready to rock this fight.”

Well-documented issues outside the cage kept Ward away from competition for nearly five years, from August 2017 to February 2022. A desire to finish his story brought him back.

“I’m just trying to wrap up,” Ward said. “I’m going to be 36 years old on fight night. I’m almost done, so I want to go out on a high note [and] show people that you can come back from personal problems that you’ve had. You can come back from that s---. That’s it. I got kids. I want my kids, when they get older, to look back and say, ‘Hey, you know what? Dad went through a tough time in his life, and he came back and he fought [and] did it for us.’ I don’t enjoy this. I don’t enjoy training. I don’t enjoy being away from my kids.

“I want to be on my job site with my boys, driving piles, welding, f---ing dock building,” he added. “I’m in the carpenters union. That’s what I love to do. I don’t love this. I do this for my kids and to show people that you can come back from s--- in your life. I didn’t like the way I left fighting. I lost my s--- because of drugs and f---ing partying, so I came back. I’m almost ready to close the door on this f---ing chapter of my life. I’ve got a couple fights left, and I’m going to go out with a bang. That’s all I can say.”