Lucas Brennan has had the spotlight on him practically since Day 1.
The world has seen him grow. It’s seen him win. It’s seen him fall. It’s seen him overcome adversity. Now nine years into his competitive MMA career, Brennan (11-2) is used to it. At 25, he’s no longer the youngest guy in the race.
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The kid gloves are off. Brennan’s zero no longer exists in the loss column. It’s a chicken-and-egg scenario between adversity and lack of focus. Brennan suffered two major upset losses back-to-back. One came in his one and only PFL fight. The next, back on the regional scene for Fury FC.
“That whole time frame sucked,” Brennan recently told MMA Junkie. “Up until that point, my whole professional career was with Bellator, and they were always awesome. Everyone that worked there was always really cool, always paid me pretty well, like I had nothing but pretty good interactions the entire time. So then when they closed, it sold, I guess, but more or less closed, like, it sucked, and, really like threw me off for a bit and then. I worked briefly with PFL and honestly hated it. It just was wildly unorganized, and I didn’t really want to stick around for that part of what the company became. … After that, it was a lull for like a year that kind of sucked.”
Tough times create tough people. Brennan struggled to find opponents on the regional scene. Those who said yes often never followed through. Brennan estimates that at one point there were approximately 50 names brought up to him, but none of them accepted.
“It was just ridiculous,” Brennan said. “People were saying no to me. I was like, ‘Please fight me.’ I was trying to take fights at different weight classes. I just wanted to get fights, and it was impossible for a while. I was like, ‘Man, I’m coming off a loss. This is like the time to fight me.”
Brennan kept his head down and just grinded. He continued to follow the plan laid out by his father, coach, and former UFC fighter Chris Brennan. But he also added another fight genius into the mix: coach John Wood of Syndicate MMA. Brennan now splits time between his home gym in Texas and Wood’s gym in Las Vegas.
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“Learning-wise, a lot more of it was just like I was training and I was doing my camps, but I just wasn’t… I wasn’t in it,” Brennan said. “I wasn’t enjoying what I was doing, and so I just really wasn’t invested in the camp and wasn’t invested in the fight, so I was going out and just fighting like sh*t and lI I don’t know where I was, but I wasn’t where I needed to be mentally and wasn’t like locked in at all. I kind of had to sit back and commit to training a little bit more, switch up what I was doing, mix up a little bit training-wise, partners and whatnot… I do think having losses takes a little bit off of you. So I think having an undefeated record kinda f*cking sucks.”
After a tough, winless 2024, Brennan started reaping the benefits of his hard work once again. In May, he quickly submitted Austin Coleman for XKO. He then returned to the promotion and defeated UFC alumnus Joshua Weems with another first-round submission.
Back-to-back first-round finishes? That’s the sort of recipe that will attract UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby, as Brennan found out in mid-December when Joanderson Brito required a short-notice opponent. The promotion ultimately went in the direction of Isaac Thomson, but Brennan’s name was in discussion as well. The near-opportunity has him eager to stay ready for when the universe follows through.
“Chances are I’m gonna end up fighting a hammer on the UFC side, but I’m cool with that,” Brennan said. “That’s what I’m there training for, even if it’s not at my weight class. I’m getting my foot in the door one way or another, and it was kind of helpful.”
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Fighting has always been a family affair for Brennan. Since his emergence on the regional scene, the “fighting is a family affair” angle has been hammered. Now, his brother Tyler Brennan is a budding 2-0 amateur.
For Brennan, he’s proud of his father and the three UFC fights he had from 1998 to 2002. It would be special to become the fourth father-son combination in promotion history, joining Randy and Ryan Couture, Gilbert and Elijah Smith, and Lance Gibson Jr. and Sr. But Brennan is also happy he’s carved out his own legacy as well.
“There’s not a version of this where he won’t be in my corner or coaching me or involved in some way,” Brennan said. “It was very cool, and it’s still cool now, but it’s definitely nice to have established a first name in everything, where, like my first amateur fights, I was 17, and I signed with Bellator when I was 18, that everything was ‘Chris Brennan’s son, Chris Brennan’s son.’ I was like, ‘This is like kind of funny, but like, also, I am a man. I do have a name.'”
With that name, Brennan plans to do great things. Although nearly a decade of advancement has played out in the international eye, Brennan still thinks the journey ahead of him is a long one – but it leads to the top.”
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“I’ve improved quite a lot, but I do still feel that there’s plenty of room to continue doing that,” Brennan said. “Even on the jiu-jitsu-wrestling end, where I would say most of my skill points probably add up, I still work that as much as I possibly can and only try to get better at it. I found going out to Syndicate that it’s on par with the best guys and I’m out there grappling every day with Merab (Dvalishvili), which is insanely helpful, and, like just tough dudes on that end and on the striking end too. I’ve done nothing but improve, and while I’m doing that, I do still feel that I have ground that I can cover. I would love to get in on that division. I think it’s a tough division. It’s definitely stacked, and I’ve had some buddies that fought in that division for a long time, and I know it’s stacked pretty much all the way through.
“I would just love to throw my name in the bowl there and be involved, and once I get rolling over there, I’ll probably have a better feel. I’m just excited to potentially be involved, and I do think that I’ve fought for a while, but I’m still pretty young, more or less. I’m 25. But as much as that makes me feel old, I know I’m not old, and I have plenty of years ahead of me. As long as I’m healthy, I got a long road ahead of me still.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Lucas Brennan reroutes toward UFC after refocus and rebuild
