“The Immortal” Wesley Murch is one of the lightweight competitors on the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter. He got his start in MMA when “Colossus” James Thompson asked him to train with him for a fight due to his judo background.
How did you get involved in TUF 8?
I saw that the deadline to get videos in was coming up soon and so I thought stuff that when is the tryouts. I looked and they were the following week but in Boston so I went straight online and booked a flight for Boston and a hotel for 5 nights and decided to try out. When my dad heard what I was doing he booked himself a flight and came with me and we made a bit of a holiday out of it.
Who are some of your heroes, in sports and otherwise?
Winston Churchill is a great hero of mine. I love all his speeches and think he showed the courage and determination that I like to think I can follow. Martin Luther King is also a hero of mine and I respect anyone who really stands up for what they believe is right and because of his courage the world is a better place for many people today. Mike Tyson is also someone I respect immensely. [So] is James "The Colossus" Thompson because I have seen him start at the beginning and work to the top, never duck anyone and train hard despite many critics.
Do you train full time or do you have another job?
I now train full time. I used to be a doorman for eight years and a debt collector but I want to be at the top of this sport and I am willing to make sacrifices to get there so I now train full time.
Where do you train? Who do you train with?
I have trained all over the world and with many top fighters but recently started my own gym, Olympians MMA, and I am working hard to get that going. I train with a few good guys local and in Kent where I travel for sparring, etc.: Paul Reed, Lee Johnstone, Damian Farr, Nigel King.
I used to train and fight at Trojan Freefighters and I owe a lot of my skill base to them. They have great coaches and some awesome talent such as Zelg Galesic and Ronnie Mann.
Outside of MMA, what are some of your interests or hobbies?
I really try to stay as focused as I can on MMA now because I hate distractions. I only have one hobby but I am passionate about it and that is falconry. I own and fly birds of prey such as eagles. Other than that my daughter keeps me very busy and I love that.
What would you do if you weren’t a fighter?
I don’t want to think about it because I can’t imagine life without doing this. I got offered a job training tigers once and that would’ve been very cool but I turned it down to keep fighting. All my mates say you should be famous and I aim to do it through fighting.
How did you get your nickname, “The Immortal”?
The nickname came when I was training in Thailand and I kept using the saying, “If it doesn’t kill me it will make me stronger” during training and one day our Thai coach said, “If you keep training here you will be immortal,” and it stuck from there really.
Who has helped you the most to get you where you are now?
To be honest the people who have really helped are family. I have a massively supportive family. My mum and dad come to my fights and I actually missed my dad’s wedding to fight once and he got my friend to call him and he gave every guest at his wedding a play by play of the fight. Trojan free fighters were a massive influence in getting where I am as well.
What does it mean to you to be the only fighter on the show from the UK?
It was a bit daunting to be representing your country on the biggest show in the world for MMA and especially as the only Brit. Michael Bisping and Ross Pointon went in the house together and obviously Mike has done very well but things are different when you’re alone and now you have to fight to get in the house which makes the pressure even harder but that’s what fighters do, they perform under pressure. I like to think I could do my country proud and do well but foremost I’d like to be a good representative for the sport as a whole and hope to in the future with the UFC and MMA.
What would you want others to know about you?
Really, I like my fighting to talk but people seem to assume that if you fight you are very one-dimensional and I really am not. I am quite a deep person really. I like to educate myself with a variety of things and especially nature.
I am also very anti-bullying and especially hate racism. My daughter is mixed-race and so are many of my friends. I hate bullies and I am at the moment getting involved with anti-bullying campaigns in schools.
I just hope people who see me fight realise that I do so with everything I have no matter where or when I fight. I fight hard and love to be entertaining.
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