Athletes
Themba Gorimbo Always Stays Hungry
Even After An Assist From Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Themba Gorimbo Has Lofty Goals In Mind Heading Into UFC Fight Night: Dolidze vs Imavov
Take a look at Themba Gorimbo’s Instagram profile and you won’t see the face of the UFC welterweight prospect.
Instead, it’s the face of one of the greatest boxers to ever put on the gloves, the late great Marvelous Marvin Hagler. Seems kind of random, but it’s not.
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“It's that time - it's war,” said Gorimbo, who faces Pete Rodriguez on Saturday in Las Vegas. “If you see me when I fight, I have the bald head and the same goatee like him. It’s how I look on fight week, just like Marvelous Marvin. I love what he used to do, his mindset, and I'm ready to go to war. Do I have to go to war? No, I just have to be smart in there. But if war comes, I'm ready for it.”
Very, very interesting, because it was Hagler who famously said that it’s hard to get up and do roadwork when you’re sleeping on silk sheets. Now I don’t know if Gorimbo is sleeping on silk sheets, but the home in Miami where he and his family are living right now is a lot more comfortable than the couch he slept on in the MMA Masters gym before his second UFC fight last May.
Heading into that bout, Gorimbo was 0-1 in the Octagon and facing an uncertain future if he lost a second bout to Takashi Sato. Before he left for the fight in Las Vegas, he had $7.49 in his bank account. He decisioned Sato, and what happened next went viral.
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Gorimbo posted his pre-fight bank account balance, then took money earned from his first UFC win and gave back to people in need in his native Zimbabwe. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson caught wind of all this, and proceeded to not just visit Gorimbo, but give him a house. It was a happy ending of epic proportions, which goes back to Marvelous Marvin Hagler. Has this whirlwind made Gorimbo take his foot off the gas a bit?
Come on, you know the answer to that question.
“The help that I got from Dwayne Johnson, that I still get to this day, helped a lot for me to only focus on fighting and training, and I’m home and I'm there for my kids,” said Gorimbo. “Before, you worry about a lot of things, and you're still fighting, which is a good thing, but people might look at this and be like, ‘Oh, maybe now he has nice things and isn’t working.’ But, trust me, I actually work maybe four times harder than I used to do because with this great support comes great responsibility and that's how I see it.”
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In other words, staying hungry is not an issue for the 33-year-old.
“What keeps me hungry is that I've never done this sport for anything else than to become the UFC welterweight champion,” he said. “I'm a guy that is only focused on becoming the UFC welterweight champion. Nothing else. And I am doing everything in my power to be that.”
The funny thing is, a lot of fighters say things like that. When Gorimbo does it, you actually believe him. It’s that earnest personality that draws people in, and it’s why they’re invested in his story. Yet no matter how many people are joining the bandwagon, the mission – and the man - are unchanged.
“I've been a champion in an organization before the UFC and I work like a champion, and I represent myself as a champion,” he said. “So there's nothing that has changed. I am a champion. It's just a matter of time for me to get to the belt that is the UFC welterweight belt. And I believe if I continue to do what I'm doing right now, the sky’s the limit. And I'm going to get a belt. I believe truly in my heart that I'll get the opportunity and I will seize it.”
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It all starts with Saturday’s bout against Rodriguez. Originally scheduled to face Kiefer Crosbie at the APEX, Gorimbo saw an injury take the Irishman out, and in stepped the hard-hitting Rodriguez. The faces don’t matter to Gorimbo, as he’s showing up ready to get a defining win against whoever is across the Octagon from him.
“More people want to see me succeed, more people are rooting for me, and that just makes sense for the UFC to propel me into those big fights,” he said. “So I need to go and make a statement in the February 3rd fight, and I will make a statement that fight, and after making the statement, they will realize I'm ready for the big time. I'm ready for the future. I'm ready to go out there and face the top guys and become the UFC welterweight champion.”
And no silk sheets are going to get in the way of that goal.
UFC Fight Night: Dolidze vs Imavov took place live from UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 3, 2024. See the final Main Card & Prelim Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
