Derek Brunson

Derek Brunson is an American mixed martial artist and former middleweight fighter for the UFC. He currently competes in the light heavyweight division. Brunson began his professional MMA career in 2007, winning numerous regional titles before joining Strikeforce in 2011. After two successful years with the promotion, he made his UFC debut at UFC 155 in December 2012.

Brunson has fought a number of top contenders throughout his career including Yoel Romero, Robert Whittaker, Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans. His aggressive style earned him six consecutive wins to start his run in the UFC before losing a controversial split decision to Romero at UFC Fight Night 35 in January 2014. He went on to defeat Lorenz Larkin by TKO at that same event and then defeated Ed Herman by unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 40 later that year.

Since then he has gone on to have a solid career inside the octagon with notable wins over Chris Leben and Sam Alvey which brought his record up to 14-4 before experiencing a three fight skid between 2018-2019 against Paulo Costa, Elias Theodorou and Israel Adesanya respectively; all fights which were closely contested until Derek was stopped late via strikes or submission apiece . Since then , Derek has bounced back from adversity as he put together an impressive four fight win streak defeating Ian Heinisch , Edmen Shahbazyan , Omari Akhmedov & Antonio Arroyo ; this streak would be snapped after losing out via Unanimous Decision against Kevin Holland . Following this defeat Derek returned once more with another dominant display as he finished Darren Stewart via Ground & Pound punches setting himself up for what could be one final run towards championship gold .

As of 2021 Brunson holds an impressive 21-7 record overall fighting some of the best fighters across both divisions while also clinching three ‘Performance Of The night’ bonuses during this time too . With such experience alongside strong performances consistently through out not only will it make Derek one of most experienced athletes within the promotion but moreover help set him up perfectly for one last attempt towards becoming champion material within either division should any opportunity arise going forwards into 2021 & beyond.