UFC Fight Night 253's Danny Barlow aims to put spotlight back on American MMA

Danny Barlow wants to see America back at the forefront of mixed martial arts.

Barlow (9-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) suggests it’s been a while since the spotlight has been on the U.S. when it comes to MMA, and he wants to be the one to help bring it back. Outside of Jon Jones, no other current UFC champion is American.

An undefeated welterweight on the rise, Barlow meets Sam Patterson (12-2-1 MMA, 2-1 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 253 (ESPN+) featured prelim at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. He hopes to make some noise with this performance.

“I really want to just more so change the game as far as bringing MMA back to America, as far as the American fighters,” Barlow told MMA Junkie Radio. “Right now we’ve got like a big stance on Russian fighters, and right now it’s a lot of people that English isn’t their first form of communication to a point where it’s like, we got a lot of fans who want to see people get knocked out, but we don’t have a lot of fans that really connect to the fighters anymore.

“Because it’s just about fighting, and nobody culturally connects with Americans anymore. So I just want to be that representative – not just for Memphis or Tennessee, where I’m from, but just be one of those American fighters that brings that culture of fighting with MMA back to the fans.”

Barlow explained that unlike the NBA, NFL, and boxing, American MMA fighters have failed to capture a big audience outside of their sport. He thinks international fighters have been given a faster route to the top due to their aid in helping the UFC globally expand its fanbase, pointing to Khamzat Chimaev and UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev as examples.

He wants to see American fighters marketed better.

“The reason I’m saying Russian fighters is because I seek to have American fighters back dominating,” Barlow added. “But when I look at their matchups, when I look at who they’re fighting, how they’re built, they’re built like boxers. Meaning that Khamzat didn’t fight nobody.

“He fought a commentator, he fought Kamaru Usman at 185 (pounds), he fought Gilbert Burns; the smallest 170 past his prime, then he fought Kevin Holland on a one-day notice. Even if you look at Islam, he fought 145, he fought guys who were on short notice. They’re not getting people real camps to fight these guys.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 253.