Former kickboxer, and undefeated MMA fighter Thomas ?Thunderkick? Longacre will be making his professional boxing debut on February 25, at the Hard Rock Casino in Tulsa Oklahoma. He will be challenging ‘Comanche Boy’ George Tahdooahnippah, who holds a professional record of 26-0-1, with 20 KOs.
I recently spoke with Longacre about the upcoming bout.
LS: Can you talk a little bit about your background in Kickboxing and MMA?
< CLICK ON THE VIDEO TO THE LEFT TO SEE LONGACRE CALLING OUT TAHDOOAHNIPPAH
TL: Yes, sir. I started fighting when I was twenty years old. I had two or three amateur kickboxing fights, and from then on, I started right into professional kickboxing. I started under Dale ?Apollo? Cook out of Tulsa Oklahoma. He kind of managed me and promoted me through the years, and after about thirty professional kickboxing fights, Chuck Norris ended up giving him a call for his World Combat League. So Chuck Norris put a show together of standup kickboxers, kind of showcasing that style. I was the first person that came to mind to Dale Cook, and that?s when I got on that fighting league and started fighting on the Versus channel two years in a row.
He was having our shows playing every five or six weeks, so I started getting a lot of nation-wide television exposure with that. Chuck Norris definitely liked how I fought just because I leave it all out there in the ring. I wasn?t a passive fighter. At the same time, my style and charisma and character is what they liked, and it was good for TV. You know, win or lose; I definitely gave the fans what they wanted to see.
After the WCL, I did a couple of seasons there, and then after that we were kind of at a stalemate in my career. I was like ?Well, there?s really not too much for kick boxers right now?. That?s when I started my MMA career. So the MMA career probably started about three years ago. Five fights later, I?m undefeated, and my last fight was on Showtime. They started to notice how strikers and standup guys were starting to do well in MMA. At the same time, Dale ?Apollo? Cook gave me the limelight because they brought a big show to Tulsa a year ago, and that gave me the opportunity to be on that show. The promoter, owner and president of Strikeforce, Scott Coker, he loved it. He wished he made our fight the main event because it was the most exciting fight of the night.
The styles make great fights. If you got somebody with the same style as the other, it?s gonna be kind of a boring fight. If you got somebody that?s, let?s say, just like me and the Comanche Boy; okay let?s say he?s a boxer, or a so-called boxer. But at the same time, I?m a fighter. So two different styles are gonna match up great because one person?s gonna be sitting back and trying to work combinations, and at the same time, me as a fighter is gonna be in his face swinging, and that?s something he?s not used to.
And that?s kind of the reason that I took the fight. I called my promoter and talked to him about it. I started watching some video on him, and it was somebody that I felt like I could beat, and give a good match to. So my manager got a hold of his manager and said, ?Hey, my guy wanted to see if your guy, Comanche Boy, would accept a fight.? And then they go around saying, how they?d never heard of me before. These guys are from Oklahoma, and around the Tulsa area. Tulsa is a big fight town. I fought thirteen to fourteen years in Tulsa. And the first ten years of my fight career, it was like every three months I was fighting in Tulsa, big shows, big venues, selling out shows and I was one of the headliners on every card. So for them to say that they?d never heard of me, it was kind of a slap in the face.
Another thing to go along with that is that they were saying how I was not at their caliber to fight George Comanche Boy. So they were saying that I?m not good enough to fight him. Now that right there was a disrespect to me, so that?s when all the hype started. It was all fun. I was okay with that, if they could have said yes or no, but when they started saying that I’m a nobody, or that I have no name, or why should I fight him because he’s not at [Tahdooahnippah’s] level. They were almost spitting at me saying, ‘Why should we fight him? He’s nothing’. So that’s why I started all the hype and the promoting and the advertising, and trying to get his manager to agree to the fight.
Then there started being small, little things that they wouldn’t agree on, like the weight, the rounds, and then how much. They were real nit-picky about everything. We agreed to everything, then there was one little, small detail. If there’s one little, small detail keeping you from fighting me, that must mean you don’t want to fight me that bad just because you’re scared. If somebody wants to fight me and calls me out, I don’t care if this guy was twenty or thirty five pounds heavier than me, we’ll just go out in the front yard and do it then.
LS: You?re Native American as well, right?
TL: Yes, sir. I’m actually half Creek. I’m a Creek Tribal Nation member, and I’m Yuchi as well.
LS: George has said that he really doesn?t want to fight other Native American fighters. Do you have any apprehensions about it?
TL: No. It’s not a big race deal to me. I know he said that he doesn’t want to fight any other Native Americans. Basically, I just think he wants to have all the limelight in boxing. But me being a true fighter, a true warrior, it doesn’t matter what race you are, I want an exciting fight. I want what the fans love to see. That was almost his way of trying to get out of it. You know, ‘Why you coming to my turf? Why you trying to fight me?’. Why, why, why? Basically it’s like you’re saying ‘scared, scared, scared’ all the time. It doesn’t matter what race they are. It doesn’t matter. I want a good fight, and I believe that George can make that fight happen. It’s a native versus a native in an Indian casino. I mean, that’s gonna be a great show ? an undefeated boxer against an undefeated MMA fighter. It’s a great fight for the promoter to put on. The casino wants it to happen. I want it to happen. The fans want it to happen. Everybody knows they’ll get their money’s worth when they come see me fight.
LS: This fight is actually a really good opportunity for you because you?re facing a well-established, undefeated boxer, and it?s your first official pro boxing match.
TL: He’s had twenty-six professional fights. I’ve had fifty professional fights. I’ve got twice as much fighting experience. I’ve been doing this for almost fifteen years. He’s been doing this maybe four or five. He’s never fought on a big-time show like this one. This is another day at the office for me. Just like you go to work, I go to work. For him, all the limelight, all the hype, I don’t think he’s going to be able to handle that.
And him being undefeated, you know, in boxing… I’m not gonna say anything about his record because I’ve seen the guy fight. I’m sure he’s seen me fight. So I’m not gonna judge his record of him being padded, or not having too many great opponents. I’ve fought a lot of monsters. I’ve fought a lot of wars. I’ve lost some, I’ve won some, you know, it’s all part of the fight game. So I’ve experienced losses, I’ve experienced wins. I’ve experienced everything in the fight game. He hasn’t experienced any of that, so he doesn’t know what it’s like. So the first time I ring his bell, or split him open, or drop him, he’s not gonna know how to handle that at all. It’s gonna be a new world for him come that night. I’m looking forward to it.
LS: You normally fight at 145 lbs, correct?
TL: Yes, sir.
LS: George fights in the 168 lb weight class. What?s your goal weight for this fight?
TL: My goal weight is 162. Right now, I’m probably walking around at about 150, pretty solid. I’m definitely keeping down the protein and trying to get thick, but that’s okay because I’ve fought bigger, badder, stronger guys than him before. My size is not gonna be a factor. I’m pretty powerful in a small frame. Most of my kickboxing wins were with my hands. I’ve knocked a lot of people out. The thing is, with my knockouts, I’ve knocked people out to put ’em to sleep. I don’t do those kind of knockouts where people take a knee, or the ref decides to stop the fight kind of deal. I put people out. Out of my thirty fights, twenty of those were knockouts. I might have had two or three TKOs where the ref would stop the fight, or the guy would be covered up in the corner, but most the time I put people down and they stay down for a while. That’s the difference between my knockouts and his knockouts. I put people to sleep. He puts people to a knee. That’s the difference.
LS: What’s your prediction for this fight?
TL: The first time I hit him, he’s gonna feel it in his whole body, and he’s gonna know I’m gonna keep coming. So once I start seeing him either scared, or withered or hurt, I’m gonna try to put him away. My job is; I’m gonna try to end it in three and get it over with. I train for ten or twelve rounds right now. You know, every week we’ll add a minute to the rounds. Right now, we’re on threes. The next week we’ll be on four-minute rounds. The next week we’ll be on five-minute rounds, and thirty second breaks.
He has no idea how to train right. I’ve been doing this twice as long as him. I’ve went the distance many, many times. I’ve done five minute rounds of fighting in a cage, where everything is accountable for ? take-downs, ground-work, boxing, kicks, knees, elbows… I’ve just gotta worry about two weapons with this guy. That’s gonna make it a whole lot more simpler because I know what’s coming. It’s either his left hand or his right hand, and that’s it.
LS: What would you like to say to the fans in closing?
TL: I just wanna tell everybody that I hope if they can’t watch, they can listen. I hope they’ll have a live stream of the event. If not, you’re gonna be able to see it probably on YouTube or Facebook. I’m definitely gonna give the fans what they wanna see ? a great fight. Come February 25th, this is gonna be a bad day for a certain, special somebody, and that special somebody is Comanche Boy. I’m ready to get at it.
