The professional mixed martial arts debut of Anthony Garrett will take place tomorrow night at Shamrock FC 272 as he will meet Justin Grant on the fight card coming from the Ameristar Casino in Kansas City.
Before entering mixed martial arts, Garrett had competed as a wrestler and played college football at East Carolina. An injury ended his football career during his senior year of college and he ended up working as the head of security at a bar in Kansas City.
In August of 2012, the venue that he worked at was hosting an MMA event called “Bartenders Brawl.” One of the heavyweights fell out of the event and essentially, Garrett took the fight as a dare. He had to drop sixteen pounds for the fight and only needed 45 seconds to defeat Justin Ridings.
It’s been nearly four years since his amateur debut and during yesterday’s “The MMA Report Podcast,” Garrett explained the role Bellator veteran Daniel Gallemore had in the decision to turn pro.
“I have been very hard and almost every day for three years straight and I have talked to a lot of good friends of mine like Bobby Voelker, Daniel Gallemore and a few other guys,” Garrett said. “Mostly, Daniel Gallemore helped me decide to go pro. I asked him after the last Shamrock fight. He goes, I have rolled with you man. I have trained with you. I think you are good enough and if you think your good enough, which you are saying you do think your good enough, than just do it. Why fight for free anymore. Start getting paid for it. Start making a name for yourself. The only way to do that is to go pro.”
“Like I said, I have three years under my belt. I have never gotten injured. God forbid I do,” he continued. “Not get injured. Just constant non-stop training for three years straight and then I work at a gym. Where I can work out every day. I am training people everyday. I work here and teach classes. Make money essentially working out. That is a blessing and I really appreciate the gym I work for, Title Boxing Club. It’s been really nice to do that every single day. That is one of the things why I went pro because I can train like I am doing that full time.”
Check out Garrett’s complete interview from Wednesday’s edition of “The MMA Report Podcast” below and be sure to subscribe to the show on iTunes and Stitcher.